Project Mew
by shadow djinni
Summary: Future AU. One decade ago, a race of aliens besieged Earth. To fight them, groups of bioengineered supersoldiers were designed by the world's top scientists. But the Mew Project is not all it seems, and as combat escalates, a team of Mews rushes to find the truth. OCs needed!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello, shadow djinni here! While this isn't my first time writing a TMM fanfic, this is the first one I actually intend to post. And, yes, I am asking you to send me OC's! More info on that at the end of the introduction, but ****_please,_**** for the love of everything you hold sacred, ****_please _****read the intro and ALL information on formatting before you go submitting OCs willy-nilly. Anyway, here goes nothing!  
**

* * *

****_In the late twenty-first century, human technology finally achieved a level to go off-planet.__Three years after the first manned mission beyond the solar system, humanity made contact with extraterrestrials.__They were not friendly._

_The first three ships to come in contact with these others were obliterated, barely getting a distress signal back to Earth before their destruction.__The fourth ship made proper contact, receiving radio and visual transmissions from the extraterrestrial ship._

_The aliens were distinctly humanoid, averaging approximately six feet in height and slender, uniformly pale with darkly-colored hair and elongated ears.__They called themselves Cyniclons.__And, in their first and only transmission to humans, they delivered an ultimatum: turn over control of your planet to us, or be destroyed._

_As soon as human governments were notified of this development, they scrambled for a solution.__Some suggested nuclear strikes.__Others suggested building a starfleet to fight these invaders.__But before long, an answer had been decided—genetically engineered supersoldiers, enhanced with animal genomes.__These supersoldiers would be designed to fight the invaders, to be lighter, stronger, faster and smarter than human soldiers._

_Such was the origin of the Mew Project. __Named for the use of animal genetics and uniformly female soldiers, each country had a branch of the project located in or near its largest metropolitan center or centers.__Each branch had a team of six Mews, no two with the same DNA, trained for battle.__In addition to a current 'action' team, a second squad of younger Mews would be engineered and trained to take the places of the old one._

_The war has been raging for a decade, and both sides have fought to a bloody standstill.__The status quo has been maintained for the last five years, neither side able to gain an advantage._

_Until a Mew discovered a secret…that shook her world from its foundations._

* * *

**A/N: Well, there's my intro. Futuristic setting, war with the aliens. A little note on Mew OCs, as products of bioengineering, they should be in 'Mew form' at all times. When you submit a Mew, know that unless someone submits a superior Mew for the same position, she has been accepted, even if she doesn't show up for a while. As for the positions, well:**

1\. Every country has a Mew team. Some have two or three, depending on size-for instance, America, which has a team for the East Coast, West Coast, and Mid/Southwest. Your Mew does _not_ need to be half-an-half or live in Japan. In fact, your Mew cannot be Japanese, since I will use the original Mew team for Japan. Your Mew can be from any country you like.

2\. Each team has six positions. The Leader is the head Mew, in charge of all the other Mews on the team. The Second is the second-in-command, in charge of the group if the Leader is incapacitated or if the team has been split. The Tactician is in charge of battlefield strategy. The Techno is in charge of all technology used by the team. And, lastly, the Aces are the strongest Mews on any team-physically, at least, since they're often too hot-blooded or rash to lead or take other positions. Do not just send me Aces or Leaders, I need all the other roles too! In addition to the Mews, each team has a Coordinator, a human in charge of giving them missions, and a Head of Research and Detection, who is in charge of weapon design and upgrade and detecting incoming aliens.

3\. The first incoming team, other than Tokyo Mew Mew, will be the Eastern Seaboard Mews, so I need them first. The position of one Ace and Leader are already taken, so send other positions for that team.

4\. THERE ARE NO NAMING CONVENTIONS! I will not require your Mews to use thematic naming like the original series. The only group I will require theme naming for are the aliens.

5\. No more than one Mew per submission, and no more that two OC's per review. Otherwise it gets too complicated.

**Here's the format I want you to use:**

**Name:** Name the Mews anything, name Coordinators or Heads anything, but all aliens must be named for herbs or spices. If they aren't, I will rename them.

**Appearance:** Hair, eyes, skin, figure. Just remember, they are full-time Mews, not just transforming humans. Anyone else, stay within human or alien possibility.

**Uniform:** Nothing frilly or fancy. This is no Magical Girl anime, this is sci-fi combat. Your Mew should be able to run and fight in her costume. Lucky for you, any uniforms will be bulletproof and rip-resistant, just don't leave too much skin exposed. If you do, leggings and/or arm guards will be added, for the safety of your character. Aliens must also be dressed appropriately.

**Weapon/Attacks:** All weapons must be usable as real weapons, not cute magical-girl sparkly things. For instance, Ichigo's Strawberry Bell has been re-imagined as a sonic weapon, Lettuce's produce low-level EMPs, and Pudding's creates an energy barrier.

**Personality:** Remember, these are not schoolgirls. These are supersoldiers, designed and trained for combat. They can be cheerful and playful outside of a fight, but no playing around in combat.

**Nationality/Base City:** What country is your Mew from? If a country has two or more teams, name the branch after the nearest large city. For example: Tokyo Mew Mew is the Japanese branch, located in Tokyo. If your character is a Cyniclon, put which branch they oppose.

**Position:** Leader, Second, Tactician, Techno, Ace, Coordinator, or Head? Conversely, for the Cyniclons I need a Beastmaster (in charge of chimaera anima), a Scientist/Healer (think Pai), and a Combat Specialist. Three teams, I won't say which, have a Deep Blue-type-that is, a 'secret weapon' designed to further the efforts of the entire mission and capable of disregarding the lives and health of the other three.

**Trivia:** Anything else you think I need to know. Don't send backstory, as I've said before, all Mews are genetically engineered soldiers. They all have the same background.

**Thank you for your submissions. Before my third update on this, I'll need the complete Eastern Seaboard Mews, so send 'em in quick! See you soon!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry for the wait, I was hoping for a few more submissions before I posted this but didn't get them. Huge thank-yous for Amu Tsukiyomi, iamgoku, and LittleMissWonderland for their Mew submissions.**

* * *

Ichigo, Lead Mew of the Tokyo branch of the Mew Project, walked briskly down the white-walled hallway to the Briefing Room. Not but a minute ago, she—and, presumably, all the other Mews on the team—had received a call from their Coordinator, Shirogane Ryou. That wasn't unusual in and of itself, since he often called the 'girls' in to talk with them about future missions, weapon upgrades, or new strategies, but the midnight meeting was a new one.

Not that it particularly bothered Ichigo, since Iriomote Wildcats, the animal with which she shared DNA, are nocturnal by nature. What bothered Ichigo was that Shirogane had dragged the rest of her team, who were more daytime-people, out of bed at midnight. Honestly, did the man have no respect?!

As the red-haired Mew approached the Briefing Room, her Tactician fell into step beside her. Zakuro was probably the most strategic member of the team, and definitely the tallest. She shared DNA with the Grey Wolf, and had the ears, tail, and keen senses to prove it. Ichigo noted that Zakuro had pulled her hair back into a braid, with the usual spiked strap braided in.

"Expecting a fight, Zakuro-san?" Ichigo asked.

"What else could it be?" the wolf Mew replied.

"Pudding," Ichigo said.

Pudding was the 'youngest' Mew, at least in terms of when she had been designed and created. The group's last mission had been Pudding's first, and the Golden Lion Tamarin Mew had messed up, badly. She'd made the mistake of putting herself in the way of a chimaera anima, forgotten about her weapon, and forced Zakuro and Mint to step in and protect her. All three had nearly been killed. If this meeting really was about Pudding's conduct, the little Mew could potentially be terminated, leaving the team short a member—and with the old team gone, there would be no replacement.

"I said she was too young for combat, but our 'wonderful Leader' didn't listen to me!" mocked Berry, dropping in on the other side of Zakuro.

Berry was one of Tokyo Mew Mew's two Aces, the strongest Mews on a team. Ichigo knew for a fact that Shirogane had designed the blonde Mew to be her rival for the position of Leader. The two were roughly the same height—Berry had a few centimeters on Ichigo—with similar builds and similar DNA animals. Ichigo privately considered Berry a mistake on Shirogane's part, since he'd designed Berry with two animals with conflicting instincts. The Andean Mountain Cat genes made Berry a fighter, but her Amami Rabbit genome made her flighty and unpredictable. As it was, this unpredictability made her too unreliable to be Leader, and her attitude problem meant Ichigo didn't want her as a Second.

"Shut up, Berry," Ichigo snapped back. "I didn't see you do anything but cower in fear and whimper whenever an alien got within ten meters of you."

"Hey!"

"Ladies, ladies!" Mint scolded. "It's too early to be fighting, and _I haven't had my tea yet._"

Ichigo and Berry fell silent. Mint was the second-smallest Mew, in spite of the fact that she was the second member of the team to be created, but her lack of height was balanced by the blue birds-wings on her back. Easily five meters from tip-to-tip, the massive appendages connected to her well-muscled back just behind her shoulderblades. Her small face was all planes and angles, and the only thing sharper than her tongue was her arrow. And the Lorikeet Mew was terrifying when she hadn't had her morning tea.

None of the girls really noticed when Lettuce fell into step alongside Mint. The green-haired Mew was the quietest of the six, and not lethal-quiet like Zakuro, either. Lettuce was shy-quiet, not much of a fighter but probably smarter than all five of the others together, or, at least, when it came to machines and gadgets. She could repair just about anything with whatever was lying around, and Ichigo had seen her improvise weapons from useless scraps. Ichigo had heard Shirogane mention once that Lettuce might be his proudest accomplishment. Most Mews with aquatic DNA couldn't live on land, but Lettuce shared a genome with the Finless Porpoise and the only obvious side effects were webbed fingers and toes.

Pudding stumbled out of one of the side hallways, yawning and bumbling into Lettuce. Unprepared for the weight, Lettuce yelped and staggered, her windmilling arms hitting Mint and hurling her against the other three. All six Mews went down in a heap in the hallway.

For a long minute, everything was dead silent. Then Mint shoved the other girls off and rose to her feet, fixing Pudding with a Look. The smaller Mew gulped apprehensively, her monkey ears lowered in terror and tail wrapping itself around her thigh.

"Uh….gomen'nasai, Minto-no-nee-chan?"

Mint's glare intensified. "Sorry's not gonna—"

The door of the Briefing Room opened, and a familiar blond head poked out.

"How long does it take you to get here?!" Shirogane exclaimed. "Your rooms are right at the end of the hall!" The Coordinator ducked back inside, grumbling irritably. Mint steamed, looking like she wanted to _murder_ Shirogane. Just as she reached for the doorknob, the door opened again, revealing Akasaka Keiichiro.

"Good morning, everyone," he said, smile reaching his warm grey eyes. "Minto-chan, your tea is on the table."

The Lorikeet Mew harrumphed and stomped into the Briefing Room. Berry, Zakuro, and Lettuce picked themselves up and followed. Ichigo helped Pudding to her feet.

"You got lucky this time, Pudding," Ichigo whispered. "If Shirogane hadn't opened the door when he did, Mint would have wiped the floor with you."

"Pudding is very lucky, na no da," the blonde Mew replied solemnly. Ichigo noted the twinkle in those bright amber eyes and decided Pudding probably ticked Mint off just for the ensuing adrenaline rush. Rolling her eyes, she pulled Pudding into the Briefing Room with her.

* * *

The lights were practically always dimmed in the Briefing Room, with the projector humming quietly on the ceiling and various pieces of equipment—along with several half-constructed computers—huddled in the darker corners. There was a table set in the middle of the room, with chairs for the Mews around it. Mint had already sat down, and was leaning back in her chair with a teacup in her hands. Zakuro stood behind her chair, evidently unwilling to sit down just yet. Berry was sprawled across the arms of her chair, looking ready to go back to sleep. Lettuce was seated, but alert.

Ryou, clad bizarrely in a pair of pajama pants and his lab coat, paced in front of the projector screen. Ichigo shook her head and giggled; Ryou had obviously put on the first things within reach when he woke up. The blond Coordinator shot her a dirty look.

"Can it, catgirl."

"Okay, Shirogane-_kun_." Ryou's eyes narrowed, his dirty look sharpening to a glower. The other Mew stifled laughter—all except Berry, who shot them all dirty looks.

"Ichigo," Berry warned. Her wine-red eyes were narrowed as well.

"Whatever," Ichigo replied, flopping down in her chair. It didn't really matter anyway, if Shirogane told Berry to jump off a cliff, she would do so and only realize that neither cats nor rabbits actually fly halfway to the bottom.

"Girls, please," Keiichiro said, interrupting the soon-to-be catfight. Berry slumped back in her chair.

"So why the hell did you drag me out of bed at midnight?" Mint asked, yawning hugely. Keiichiro smiled at her.

"Ryou will explain in a minute."

"Thank you, Keiichiro." Shirogane snapped his fingers, and the projector hummed to life immediately. It lit up the wall across from the table. Several video files appeared across the projection—seven in total, each from different bases.

"As you can see, we've had a good deal of video messages sent out in the last twenty minutes. The first one was sent by the branch on the west coast of America, roughly nineteen minutes ago. The other six were sent moving eastward."

"Your point?" Zakuro asked.

"I was getting to that," Shirogane replied. "The message of each video was essentially the same: the team of Cyniclons harassing their base has issued a concentrated strike on the base itself. I called you girls in here to give you some time to get ready. We'll give those aliens a surprise when they come here!" He fixed each Mew with one of his piercing blue stares. "Tokyo Mew Mew, go!"

The girls shot out of their chairs and dashed back down the hallway, scrambling for the discarded uniforms in their rooms. Pudding whooped in excitement and turned cartwheels down the hallway, her young face bright. Berry rolled her eyes and charged after her, yelling something at the younger blonde about following orders this time.

"Hypocrite," Mint griped. "Let's go, onee-sama." Zakuro nodded and hustled after the bluenette, knowing that Mint sometimes had issues getting her wings through the slits on the back of her bodysuit. Ichigo met Lettuce's eyes and nodded.

"You'll do fine, Lettuce," Ichigo said. "Don't worry."

The green-haired Mew's anxious expression lightened. "I'll do my best, Ichigo-san."

Ichigo leapt through her door, closed it behind her, and grabbed her crumpled-up bodysuit off the floor. The suit was all one piece, form-fitting to the hips with looser legs. The ankles of the pants hugged her ankles, the wrists tight to hers, to prevent extra fabric from snagging. The fabric, something custom-designed for the Mew Project, shed bullets like an umbrella shed raindrops and was relatively resistant to ripping and tearing, though the Cyniclons had developed a blade edge capable of cutting it. It was black, and hers had pink accents on the trim and gear belt. Ichigo buckled her long knife to her belt and attached her shorter one at its customary place on her left forearm. Then she grabbed her special weapon out of the corner where she'd tossed it after the last fight.

Each Mew, in addition to standard-issue knives for close combat, had a custom weapon, designed for them and them alone. If the Head was smart, he designed them so it would only work if the Mew it was made for held it. Ichigo's was a sonic weapon, in the shape of a heart—Keiichiro could be such a girl sometimes!—that issued blasts of sound at a frequency so high that none of the Mews could hear it, but was well within the Cyniclons' range and caused disabling pain. With it, she could drive off an attacker, disorient them, or even kill.

Lastly, Ichigo pulled on her boots. They went up to mid-calf and were made of leather, the soles designed to get good traction on just about every surface. There was a spring-loaded knife in the toe of each boot, activated by slamming the heel against the ground before kicking the target—perfect for doing some serious damage.

Straightening, the redhead looked around the room, trying to figure out where MASHA had gotten itself to.

"MASHA? Where are you, you silly robot?"

A pink ball of fluff rolled itself out from under Ichigo's bed, unrolled a pair of wings equal in size to its main body, and flitted up to eye level.

"MASHA here! MASHA here!" it chirped.

MASHA was Shirogane's AI. The basic program, called R2000, had been coded and installed into the main base by Shirogane's father, the previous Head. Shirogane had improved the program, giving it a simple personality, upgrading system memory, storage, and computing capacity, and building a robot to house the AI. The tiny pink robot was the main computer for the entire base, with the capability to connect with and manipulate any computerized system it wanted. Ichigo didn't understand its full capabilities, but she was glad for the backup on missions—MASHA's tiny form was surprisingly dangerous.

"Are you ready to go, MASHA?" Ichigo asked.

"Ready! Ready!"

* * *

The Mews stood outside the entrance to the base, hands on their weapons, ears turning this way and that and eyes alert for any movement in the darkness. Ichigo's heart pumped faster, adrenaline already pulsing through her arteries. Her keen gaze scanned the surrounding area, and her tail lashed behind her.

"Aw, you came out to meet us?" asked a voice from behind her. "That's sweet of you, Koneko-chan."

Ichigo whirled around, punching out with her larger knife as the alien bounded back, honey-gold eyes glowing faintly. He laughed, exposing slightly elongated canine teeth. Evergreen bangs fell in his face.

"Kisshu," Ichigo said, her voice softening to a growl.

"Hey," he replied, satellite-disk ears tilting into the pose Ichigo recognized as 'flirtatious'. Behind her, something exploded, and the sounds of fighting reached the Lead Mew's ears. Her eyes narrowed.

"Don't you ever give up?" Ichigo asked, tensing.

"Of course not~!" Kisshu chirped. He then sprang back into the air, hovering just high enough to avoid her strike. Ichigo leapt after him—and was swatted out of the air by a chimaera anima. She hit the wall of the base with a thud. Forgetting the Cyniclon for the moment, Ichigo scrambled back to her feet, dodged the chimaera's next swipe, and leapt to the top of a nearby tree to take stock of the situation.

Three chimaera anima and the three usual aliens. Kisshu hovered over the fight, laughing like a maniac. Berry was—for once—dodging and leaping, slashing at the monster's face with the blade end of her staff. Zakuro and Mint had paired up, as usual, to take on the other two chimaera. Zakuro had flipped the barrel of her plasma gun back, setting it in 'whip' mode, and lashed it with unparalleled accuracy at the creatures, while Mint provided covering fire from overhead. Her arrows hit chinks in the monsters' armor every time.

Off to the right, Pudding dueled the youngest of the three aliens, whose name Ichigo suspected was Taruto. They were the most acrobatic of the combatants, with Pudding flipping and leaping to avoid jolts of electricity and Taruto narrowly dodging every energy prison Pudding attempted to catch him with. Ichigo was pleased that the tamarin Mew was focused on the fight for once.

To the left, Lettuce squared off with the third alien, whose name had been confirmed as Pai by the last team of Mews. Lettuce's EMP castanets clattered at top speed, generating an electromagnetic charge between the two plates. Judging by the sizzling sparks the apparatus was spitting, it wouldn't be long before a low-level EMP rendered all Cyniclon tech useless. Pai seemed determined to separate the porpoise Mew from her castanets without touching them—he'd gotten a nasty shock the first and only time he'd made contact.

"Distracted, Kitten?" Kisshu asked, behind her again. Ichigo whirled and punched him in the jaw. The alien spun away, yelping in surprise. "Geez, Koneko-chan, you're awfully violent today."

"If you and your stupid friends would just leave I wouldn't have to kill you," Ichigo snarled. She pulled her Strawberry Bell from its holster and raised it to chest level, preparing to fire a sonic pulse.

Kisshu darted forward, a sai materializing in his hand to slash at her face. Ichigo flipped backward. Dropping her weapon back in its holster, she slid both knives from their sheathes and raised them in a cross block. The sai _clanged_ against her blades, and she twisted them violently. Kisshu gripped his hilt with both hands, determined not to drop it.

Ichigo released her block, dropping backwards off the tree. Kisshu shot overhead, spun on his heel, and dove after her. His honey eyes had lost all playfulness. His sais led as he plunged toward her. Ichigo rolled. Kisshu hit the dirt right where she had been seconds earlier, his sais landing where her chest had been.

As the Cyniclon struggled to free his swords, Ichigo sheathed her knives and slid the Bell from its holster. Raising it back to chest height, she pressed a trio of buttons on the left side and felt it hum to life in her hands.

Hating Keiichiro with every word of the silly activation phrase, she shouted, "Reborn, Strawberry Check!"

The Bell vibrated faster, and Kisshu screamed and covered his ears. Not far off, all three chimaera shrieked. One shriek was cut off on a wet squelch. The others increased in volume as Ichigo amped up the frequency. A trickle of red-violet blood oozed from Kisshu's left ear. The air around the green-haired alien flashed, and he was gone. Ichigo growled, cursing him for fleeing like a coward whenever things got too risky.

Abruptly, Berry crashed through the tree, screaming, and hit Ichigo square in the chest. Both Mews were sent flying. Ichigo lost her grip on her Strawberry Bell. The two smacked into another tree. Berry slid to the ground, unconscious, pulling Ichigo with her. The redhead shoved her deadweight ally off and sprang back to her feet. Her tail lashed furiously. The chimaera that had thrown Berry shoved the first tree aside and loomed over her. The creature was a good ten feet tall at the shoulder and vaguely ratlike, with massive incisors and a long, narrow skull. Its hairless tail swished behind it, and it loosed a cry that was part roar and part screech. Ichigo hissed in reply, ears flattening against her head. She drew her knives once more and shifted into a crouch, her tail swishing low.

Too fast to be visible to the human eye, the ratlike chimaera lunged. Ichigo saw the strike coming and leapt over it, landing beside its massive foreleg. A second leap took her up to the elbow joint, and a third set the feline Mew at the base of the chimaera's skull. It screeched and twisted, incisors gnashing. Ichigo rammed her larger knife into the soft spot where the monster's neck met its head. Two inches in, the knife hit something hard and stopped.

_Shit. Shit! I aimed for the wrong spot—_

The chimaera shook its head and roared in pain, throwing Ichigo before she could pull her knife back out and stab again. The redhead landed on her feet and held her shorter knife at the ready. The chimaera swiped at her, and this time, Ichigo was too slow to dodge. Losing her grip on her knife, she slammed back into the tree and landed on the still-unconscious Berry. Dazed, Ichigo stared into the face of oncoming death…

…And jumped in surprise when the tip of an arrow jabbed through the center of the thing's forehead. It collapsed like an empty bag, revealing Mint hovering directly behind it. The bluenette Mew landed delicately.

"You need to be more careful, Ichigo!" Mint scolded. Ichigo's ears drooped slightly.

"…Arigato, Minto-chan…" Ichigo muttered.

She looked around at the rest of the battlefield. Taruto was gone, though Pai had stuck around to duel Lettuce. One of the other chimaera lay in pieces all over the place, while the third narrowly dodged the lashing of Zakuro's plasma whip and Pudding's attempts to set up an energy barrier around it.

As Mint took to the air once more, Ichigo yanked her knife out of the chimaera's neck and sprang back into action. She darted toward Pai and Lettuce.

The alien had his miniguns out now. Like Zakuro's weapon, they fired plasma bolts. Unlike Zakuro's, they had one mode, were far smaller, and a good deal more powerful. Lettuce had pulled her latest weapon of mass destruction, a pair of revolver-style ray-guns. The two sprinted back and forth, firing and dodging each other's shots. As a stray plasma blast rocketed over Ichigo's head, the Mew decided she was probably better off helping Zakuro and Pudding with the remaining chimaera than getting involved with Lettuce and Pai.

She reached the other two Mews just as Zakuro flipped her whip back down into gun mode. The violet-haired Mew shot their Leader a glance out of the corner of her eye.

"Glad you could join us, Ichigo."

"No problem," Ichigo replied. She raised her Strawberry Bell and pressed the buttons again. The chimaera shrieked in agony, and Zakuro put a plasma bullet right between its eyes. The bullet seared straight through its skull, melting bone and tissue alike. It collapsed in a heap, scalded grey matter exposed through the top of its now-open head. Pudding gagged and looked away.

"Gross, na no da!"

Ichigo nodded. While the sight triggered her gag reflex, as usual, she focused on setting a good example and _not_ throwing up in the bushes.

"You'll get used to it," Zakuro replied. She flipped the safety switch on her plasma gun and holstered it. Ichigo turned off her Bell and returned it to its holder.

Behind her, someone screamed. Ichigo whirled around to find Pai, looking stunned, holding his arm where Lettuce's ray-gun had burned it. The alien's deep violet eyes narrowed, and he teleported away before anyone could do anything.

"Darn it," Lettuce grumbled, embarrassed. She looked up at the other Mews. "I almost got him that time."

**A/N: Well, here's the first real chapter. As for the next one, I still need a Second, Techno, and Ace for the Eastern Seaboard Mews, based in New York, and I can't update until I get them. I suppose I could write the third chapter without the rest of that team, but I would prefer to know who I'm working with first and I ****_will_**** make my own Mews for the job if I have to. Read, review, submit a character! I can't do this without you!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Happy Holidays to everyone reading this! Guess I got back pretty quickly on this, huh? Thanks to XxHellShadowXx for her Mew and alien submissions, and to sakuuya for taking an interest. Since I'm getting this chapter up with a few open spots left, I'll still take submissions for the Eastern Seaboard Mews-I still need a Second, Techno, and Coordinator for the team, and a Combat Specialist for the aliens.**

Back inside the base, in the Mew locker room, Ichigo shucked out of her uniform. The locker room was originally intended to be storage for equipment, uniforms, and the like, but over the course of three generations of Mews most of those things had migrated to the Mews' rooms. These days, the locker room was more of a communal cleanup and decontamination space.

Lettuce and Zakuro had claimed the showers almost immediately, Zakuro to wash off the chimaera's blood and Lettuce to get rid of her coating of soot from her ray-guns, which had exploded shortly after the fight was over. Berry had just returned from delivering tissue samples from the dead chimaera to Ryou and Keiichiro and was busy removing her boots. Pudding had miraculously managed to stay clean, and the smallest Mew was helping Mint clean chimaera blood off herself. The bird Mew hated getting her wings wet and avoided showers whenever possible, preferring to use a washcloth.

Ichigo dropped her filthy uniform into the laundry hamper and waited patiently for one of the showers to come open. She didn't mind being naked in here—all of Shirogane's cameras had been removed, and all of the Mews knew exactly what the others looked like unclothed. Her tail swished behind her as she grabbed her towel from the rack and hung it closer to the showers, within easy reach.

Abruptly, the water in Zakuro's shower cut off, and the wolf Mew stepped out amid a swirl of steam. Her long, violet hair looked black with water and clung to her skin. She grabbed her towel and pulled it around her body, the plush fabric clinging to every curve, and padded across the floor, completely unfazed by the cold concrete.

Ichigo slipped into the shower stall and turned the water on. A stream of warm water cascaded over her skin, beating against her ears, drenching her in seconds. She hummed with pleasure and reached for the shampoo.

* * *

Shirogane Ryou was fortunate that all six of his girls were clothed when he barged into the locker room fifteen minutes later. Zakuro was seated on one of the benches, with Mint perched behind her braiding her hair. Ichigo was in the process of helping Lettuce with her signature double-braid, and Berry fended off an overeager Pudding, who evidently wanted to join her 'sisters' tradition of doing each other's hair. As one, they looked at him in the doorway. Ryou gulped. He'd designed and trained all six Mews, but it was still intimidating to have them all staring at him at once. They were…intense, even quiet Lettuce.

"We've got an incoming transmission from the east coast of America. Ichigo, Zakuro, I need you in the Briefing Room now," Ryou said.

As per usual, Ichigo sassed him. "And what do you need us for, Shirogane? Can't handle it on your own?"

Ryou suppressed a groan of frustration. "It's a _conference_, Ichigo, and that means Coordinators, Heads, Leaders, and Tacticians. Now."

"We're coming," Zakuro said simply as Mint tied off her braid with a ponytail holder. She stood and walked to Ryou's side. The Coordinator glanced at her sidelong. Zakuro was the oldest and most trusted of his Mews, but none of the others were anywhere near as enigmatic. His blue eyes locked with her violet ones, and he wondered, _what are you thinking? __What goes on in that mind of yours, Zakuro?_ Ichigo groused unhappily about the change of pace.

"Minto-chan, can you finish Lettuce's braids for me?" the Lead Mew asked over her shoulder as she joined her Coordinator and Tactician in the doorway.

"No problem, Ichigo," Mint replied, settling behind Lettuce.

Leaving the other four Mews to their own devices—they would probably just go back to bed for a few more hours' worth of sleep—the trio headed down a flight of stairs to the main hub of Headquarters.

The Tokyo Headquarters were located in a custom-designed underground bunker just outside the city proper, set under an old café that had gone out of business a few years before the First Contact. They still used it sometimes as a meeting room when scientists from other branches came to discuss future plans for the project. The headquarters itself was designed with three floors. The uppermost was primarily supplies and storage, along with the Mew's locker room. The Briefing Room and living quarters were on the second level, and the lowest—and largest—level had both the labs and the training rooms.

Ryou pushed open the door to the Briefing Room and heard the Mews gasp in shock. He wasn't surprised. They were his newest team, after all, and the old team had fallen apart slowly enough that Ichigo and Zakuro weren't _quite_ used to all the duties and responsibilities of being the Leader and Tactician. They'd certainly never seen the Briefing Room lit up like this before.

Keiichiro had set up the projector in the center of the room, and various lenses projected live-stream images of other teams of Mews from around the globe. The Head was on his own personal screen, making eyes at the Head of the Eastern Seaboard Mews, a young woman named Rei who had been his classmate in college. Trying to ignore his Head, Ryou scanned the screens. Small text in the corner of each image, written in English, told which locations were represented. Most bases were accounted for—except, oddly enough, the Greenland Mews, and Moscow Mew Mew had decided to show up. Keiichiro flipped a switch, and Tokyo Mew Mew went live.

"Hey, Rei, is everyone here who's gonna be here or do we have to wait? I'm getting really frickin' bored," the Eastern Seaboard's Lead Mew asked impatiently, brushing her dark brown bangs out of her eyes. She jammed her hands in one of the front pockets of her military-style jacket, managing to look both irritated and anxious at the same time.

"Calm down, Rei's talking to her boyfriend. She'll look up in a minute," said her companion, a Mew with violet-streaked black hair. The ESM Tactician looked worried, green eyes darting back and forth like she expected an attack. Ryou's curiosity was piqued now. What on Earth was going on over there?

Rei looked up from her chat with Keiichiro, a little startled. "Oh, excuse me. Yes, I think we're ready to begin."

"Then we should hurry up, yes?" That was the Leader of Moscow Mew Mew, a large girl with polar bear DNA. "Greenland Mews are requesting backup, and as closest headquarters Moscow is required to help."

Ryou sighed inwardly. This was going to be a long meeting, he could tell, and English always gave him a slight headache—but it was a requirement, the second language all Mews, Coordinators, and Heads had to learn to communicate between bases.

"We're forgetting protocol, everyone," Keiichiro said simply. "All teams must introduce ourselves before the meeting can begin, and the 'host' team goes first."

"Alright, I'm Mew Currant, Leader of Eastern Seaboard Mew," the girl said, amber eyes flashing.

"Mew Amu, Eastern Seaboard Tactician," said the other Eastern Seaboard Mew.

"Nishina Rei, Head of Eastern Seaboard Mew," said Rei. "Our Coordinator is trying to deal with the situation that led us to call this meeting, so he couldn't make it.

* * *

The string of introductions ran around the room, going surprisingly smoothly considering the irregularity of this sort of meeting- most Mews never met others who weren't from their home country. They went in order of arrival, so Tokyo Mew Mew went last.

"Mew Ichigo, Leader of Tokyo Mew Mew."

"Mew Zakuro, Tactician."

"Shirogane Ryou, Tokyo Mew Mew Coordinator."

"Akasaka Keiichiro, Head of Research and Detection."

"Now that that's over with…" Mew Currant grumbled, "We've got a situation over here."

"What sort of 'situation'?" asked one of the British Mews. They were right across the Atlantic, so most problems from the east coast of the United States washed up there.

"We…um…lost one of our Mews," Currant said sheepishly.

"Greenland Mews are losing Mews right now and will lose whole team if Moscow Mews do not get there in time," grumbled the polar bear Mew.

"She's not dead, just missing," Mew Amu said coolly. "We suspect the Cyniclons captured her."

"They used different tactics here," Rei said. "Instead of targeting our base, they made a run through the Catskill Mountains, dropping chimaera along the way, and left before our Mews arrived on the scene."

"I'm asking you guys to keep an eye out for her," Currant said.

"Can we get a visual of this Mew?" Keiichiro asked, leaning forward intently.

A picture replaced the visual of the Eastern Seaboard delegation. The Mew pictured was a tall, slim girl, with long platinum blonde hair, a lock of which hid her right eye. The left one was a brilliant ruby color. Massive bat wings were folded behind her back.

Currant's voice came out of the speakers. "That's Mew Calliope, one of our Aces. She disappeared right in the middle of the attack, and our A.I. detected at least three chimaeras pretty close to her when her GPS transmitter cut out."

"What sort of transmitter was this?" Keiichiro asked. Ryou knew that look. That was the look that meant his Head was interested, or on the trail of an idea.

"The S-2103, with last year's updates," said Rei. The visual switched over to a small chip, a few millimeters square. "All our Mews have them implanted at the base of their skulls. They're designed to cut out like Mew Calliope's did if the Mew dies, but when we investigated the area—nothing. No body, no evidence that she'd been killed."

"The chimaera's deaths certainly weren't Calliope's style," Amu put in. "However they died, it made a huge mess, way bigger than she could have done with her blade."

"Blade?" Ichigo asked.

"Think _Star Wars_ lightsabers, only claymore size," said Currant. "She'd not the cleanest fighter, but Calli doesn't blow things up like that."

"Hmmm," Keiichiro said. "Anything else?"

"A set of unfamiliar boot prints, 26 centimeters from toe to heel. Whoever it is seems to have walked in and out within ten minutes of the chimaera's deaths. The only sign of Calliope's footprints are toe marks where she probably landed before the chimaera attacked her. Anything could have happened to her, since wherever she went she didn't walk," said Rei.

Ryou contemplated this information. A Mew, capable of flight and trained for battle, disappearing with no reason and without a trace—this made no sense to him unless she went rogue. He'd never seen a Mew go rogue before, and he'd been at the Tokyo Headquarters from the very beginning when his father and mother, both talented genetic engineers and researchers, had received a government grant to begin the Japanese branch of Project Mew. But he'd heard of rogue Mews at other branches—one would simply be unable to take the strain of near-constant fighting and snap, attacking her home base. Most rogue Mews were terminated quickly, though a few survived long enough to behave exactly like the Cyniclons and harass the base. Rogue Mews were top priority.

Just as the thought crossed Ryou's mind, the Sydney Coordinator asked, "Could she have gone rogue or something?"

"No way!" Currant exclaimed. "I watched one of the last generation go rogue, and she was broody for days before she snapped. Calli was just fine."

Rei nodded in agreement. "Mew Calliope is one of our most well-adjusted Mews. I doubt going rogue is what happened.

"So," said the Moscow polar bear Mew, "You have no clue and are wasting precious time talking while Greenland Mews die like dogs at North Pole. We are leaving now, thank you for wasting our time." The feed from Moscow cut off. Currant sighed with relief.

It was only then that Ryou realized that the Antarctic Mews hadn't shown up either. That wasn't unusual, since their Earthnet linkage could cut out at any minute during a snowstorm, but it made him wonder. If the Greenland Mews were fighting Cyniclons at the North Pole, was the South Pole facing a similar assault? He reminded himself not to worry. The Antarctic Mews were a tough, hard-knock crew—and only on their second generation, since the aliens had difficulty killing them.

With the exit of the Moscow Mews, the tension built. Other teams looked ready to log out too, with the Mews yawning if their time zone was during the night, or looking impatient to be somewhere else if it wasn't.

Rei seemed to sense the mood, because she said, "Thank you all for turning in. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but if you could keep an eye out for Calliope it would be greatly appreciated. We'll see you later."

The feeds cut out one by one, until the projector displayed only blank white on every wall. Ryou turned to his Mews. Ichigo looked puzzled. Zakuro looked contemplative.

"What do the two of you think?" he asked, directing his question mainly to Zakuro.

"I have no idea," Ichigo said. "Why would a Mew just disappear like that?"

"Perhaps she decided she wanted to leave," suggested Zakuro. "Even a well-adjusted Mew enjoys alone time sometimes. This Calliope girl will probably return to her home base within a week. We won't have to worry about it here."

"Let's hope you're right," Keiichiro said. He glanced at his watch and his jaw dropped. "Goodness, 1:27 in the morning? You girls ought to get to bed; Ryou and I planned the weekly assessment for this afternoon.

Ichigo's eyes went huge. "The assessment?! I'm going to be too tired to pay attention tomorrow at this rate! Come on, Zakuro-san, let's hurry and go back to sleep!" The feline Mew turned tail and sprinted for her bedroom. Zakuro followed at a more relaxed pace, pausing in the door to wish Ryou and Keiichiro good night.

As they left, Keiichiro turned in his chair to face Ryou. "What do you think about all of this, Ryou?"

"I think it's a little suspicious. Who went through the clearing after the fight? Who killed the chimaera? Where did this Mew go, and why did she disappear?"

"Do you think she left on her own?"

"Probably." Ryou sank down in his own chair, cradling his head in his palms. "This is going to be a huge problem, isn't it?"

"Who knows?" replied Keiichiro. Coordinator and Head sat quietly together, thinking of the days to come.

* * *

**A/N: Foreshadowing! By the way, I gave a few basic ideas for Mews from other bases if anyone wants to flesh them out a bit. See you next time, and don't forget to send me your OCs-they'd make a better gift than anything else! ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I feel...kind of ignored.**

The morning after a fight was always the worst, Lettuce thought as her alarm went off at exactly five o'clock the next morning. You had to get up, tired and sore from a rough awakening at midnight, remember exactly what it was you did, who you almost killed—_don't think about how clever he must be to design beautiful weapons like that, Lettuce_—and then realize that today is, of all days, the weekly assessment, when the scientists in Headquarters get to watch you work and analyze your strengths and weaknesses. Fun stuff, really.

The green-haired Mew slapped at her alarm clock, unintentionally smacking it off the bedside table. She heard a _crunch_ as it hit the opposite wall.

"I'm sorry!" Lettuce whisper-yelped, even though there was no one she could possibly be apologizing to. It was a reflex, really; she'd gotten so used to hitting the other Mews by accident during training, or dropping something she shouldn't have, or having one of her inventions malfunction that apologizing whenever something went wrong had become second-nature. She scrambled out of bed, tripped on the sheets, and fell on the floor right next to her broken alarm clock.

The lights flipped on, and Lettuce looked up to find Berry and Pudding peering in through her doorway.

"Are you okay?"

"Did Lettuce-no-nee-chan fall out of bed, na no da?"

"I'm okay, thanks," Lettuce squeaked. Even though these girls were her teammates, the only people in the world who understood and accepted her completely, she was still embarrassed by her clumsiness. She could keep upright in mud in the middle of a fight, but put her in a clean, dry, carpeted room and Lettuce found a way to trip and fall flat on her face.

Berry and Pudding looked at each other, shrugged, and closed the door. A second later, Ichigo opened it back up again. Lettuce wondered how the wildcat Mew could be so cheerful this early in the morning.

"Good, you're up!" the Leader chirped. "Breakfast is in a few minutes, and then it's assessments so you might want to hurry up." The door closed again, leaving Lettuce to her mess.

Knowing the clock was un-savable—the screen was a shattered mess, bits of glass falling out as she picked it up—Lettuce pried open the casing. Computer chips, wires, various screws and sockets that would have been an incomprehensible mess to anyone else met her eyes, and the Mew smiled gently. Most of her inventions were made from scraps of old tools or pieces of equipment, and Lettuce hoarded any broken objects she could get a hold of for future use. She tucked the alarm clock into her table drawer, pulled on the cotton pants and loose-fitting shirt the Mews wore for training and on off-days, and ran out the door to breakfast.

Breakfast was, according to all the books Lettuce took from the scientists, the most normal part of the Mews' day. They got up, walked down the hall to their personal kitchenette, and made whatever they wanted from the supplies in the pantry. Lettuce made it to the door in time to hear the blender start up. She supposed that was Berry making her usual breakfast smoothie. The smell of hot oil and fresh fish hit her nose a second later, and she smiled. That was probably Ichigo, working on the dish they preferred to share. The redheaded Mew wasn't a _horrible_ cook, but she could have been worse. All the same, Lettuce hurried up to make sure the fish—fresh salmon, judging by the smell—didn't burn.

The kitchenette was a small, crowded place. Mint perched on the back of a chair, alternating between bites of cereal and grapefruit. Pudding was _under_ the table, eating her way through a bag of grapes. A cinnamon bun sat on a plate next to her. Berry was dumping her smoothie out of the blender into a tall plastic cup. Ichigo hurried to flip chunks of fillet in the pan to keep them from burning and grabbed for the eggs in the fridge. The only calm Mew was Zakuro, who leaned against the wall with a breakfast sandwich.

Lettuce darted for the stove, pulling the pan off the burner and taking the spatula. Ichigo smiled with relief and cracked in the eggs. Lettuce turned down the heat on the stove while Ichigo grabbed the onions, bell peppers, and a kitchen knife. The two settled into an easy rhythm, as almost every morning. Ichigo hummed and attempted to bump Lettuce's hip with her own, but the height difference left Ichigo hitting Lettuce's thigh. Lettuce grinned and pulled the pan off the stove.

At 5:30 exactly, the doors to the training room opened and the Mews filed in. Lettuce noted that over half of the cavernous room had been blocked off by a sliding wall—as usual for an assessment. The rest of the room held the Mews' training equipment—the climbing wall, the practice knives, ropes hanging from the ceiling, and of course the water station. A small team of scientists stood by the door to the rest of the room, lab coats nearly glowing under the fluorescent lights and clipboards clenched in their fists. One young man held a stopwatch. Lettuce gulped. She was never very good at time trials.

Shirogane stepped out of the group, locking eyes with each Mew in turn. Lettuce felt a thrill go through her when their eyes met, blue to green. He didn't notice, though, and continued down the line.

"Alright girls, listen up. Today's assessment is a time trial focusing on agility and ingenuity. One Mew will go at a time, and the rest of you will stay out here to make the test fair. You have fifteen minutes to warm up."

Shirogane stepped back, and Keiichiro stepped forward. "The Mews with the best time and score will get added dessert privileges for the rest of the week," he said. Lettuce heard Ichigo, Berry, and Pudding's excited intake of breath and knew that Keiichiro had convinced the others to do their best in spite of their exhaustion from last night's battle.

As the rest of the Mews split off to stretch and warm up, Lettuce met eyes with Zakuro. The Tactician nodded, and Lettuce nodded back. Even though the others usually had the advantage in strength, Lettuce knew she and Zakuro had a good chance of winning this trial. The violet-haired Mew seemed to know this as well, because as she brushed past Lettuce she whispered, "Do your best." Lettuce nodded and began stretching.

Fifteen minutes passed all too quickly. One of the scientists looked up from his clipboard and called, "Mew Pudding?" The tamarin Mew scampered over, light brown eyes bright with excitement. She received a set of instructions and disappeared through the door into the assessment room.

"Mew Lettuce."

Lettuce, right in the middle of a complicated yoga pose, fell flat on her face when Keiichiro called her in for her trial. She scrambled upright and walked over.

"Yes?" she asked.

"This week's trial, as you know, tests agility and ingenuity. There's an obstacle course on the other side of the door, and your goal is to get through as quickly as possible without falling in the water. There are tools and other objects available at certain areas on the course for you to use as you see fit," Keiichiro said.

"But," said Shirogane, "All falls start you back at the beginning, with no resets on time. Your time starts the second you enter the room. Good luck."

Lettuce stepped through the door and gaped in shock. The floor had been pulled back, revealing the pool below. The course looked incredibly tricky: the first obstacle was row upon row of pillars between her and the next platform each topped with red, green, or blue cushions. She saw swings and large rubber balls, swing-arms that swiped low over the course. She gulped—and then noticed the first set of objects, a pile of small stones.

_Maybe some of those pillars are rigged to collapse._ Lettuce scooped up the pile and lobbed the first one at the pillar directly in front of her. It collapsed immediately. _Ah. I get it!_

The collapsing pillar had been red-topped. She tossed the next rock at the closest blue-topped pillar. It wobbled violently but didn't fall. The green-topped one stayed steady. Lettuce leaped, choosing only green or blue pillars. She landed neatly on the other side and tucked the remaining stones into her pocket.

The next obstacle was a large pendulum, swinging between her platform and a vertical wheel. There was a gap in the rim, which Lettuce suspected she was supposed to aim for. She wasted a few seconds observing timing, before grabbing the pendulum and swinging across. She landed precisely in the opening. Gripping tightly to the sides of the gap, Lettuce hung on until the wheel had turned to the next platform and leapt again. Her landing was a little wobbly that time, but she stayed on and sprinted for the next gap. A jump took her over the oncoming swing arm.

Lettuce was going into overdrive, she knew it. It was almost like fighting, that perfect slowdown and clarity, the precise awareness of her own body, exact calculations of speed and timing. She grabbed a pole and used it to vault the next gap. The rubber balls were tricky, but she took them as quickly as possible and only risked falling on the first one. Before she truly realized what was going on, Lettuce landed on the opposite side of the room. A display on the wall gave her her time: 00:06:49. Six minutes, forty-nine seconds. Lettuce smiled. _New personal best._ She walked out through the exit door and was almost immediately glomped by Pudding.

"Lettuce-no-nee-chan did really good, na no da!" Pudding cheered.

"Thank you, Pudding-chan," Lettuce smiled. "And how did you do?"

"Pudding did it in six and a half minutes, na no da!"

Zakuro spoke up from the other side of the room. "My time was five minutes, fifty seconds."

Berry pouted. "Seven minutes, twenty-three seconds. I just hope Ichigo does worse."

"Berry-san!" Lettuce yelped. "That's not nice at all!"

"So? I _do_ hope Ichigo does worse. If she falls behind too much, Ryou will make me the Leader instead of her."

"Don't be so informal about our Coordinator, Mew Berry," Zakuro said. "He is not your friend. He is not your lover. He is your boss, nothing more. Remember your place."

"Hmph. You're just jealous because he likes me better."

"I don't care."

"Because you're 'above all this foolishness', right?" Berry shifted her tone to a high, nasally one. Her eyes glittered mockingly. "Because you don't care about anyone except you and your precious bluebird. Well guess what? When I get to be Leader, _Zakuro-sama_—"

At exactly that moment, Ichigo bounded into the room. "Six minutes, forty-nine seconds! I almost fell in twice!"

"Wonderful, Ichigo-san!" Lettuce said, smiling.

"Thanks, Lettuce!" The red-haired Mew hugged Lettuce enthusiastically. "I can't wait to see how Minto-chan does! I bet she'll do great."

Eight minutes later, a sopping wet and irritated Mint joined them to wait for their results. Berry muttered angrily in the corner, while Pudding bounded around the room with Ichigo in hot pursuit. Zakuro had grabbed a towel seemingly out of nowhere and helped Mint dry off. Lettuce tried to stay out of the way.

Just as the door opened and Keiichiro started into the room, clipboard in hand, the base's alarm began going off. Everyone froze.

From behind Keiichiro, Shirogane groaned in frustration. "Damn aliens. They always pick the worst time—" A communicator clipped at his waist crackled, and he yelped. "What? They're in the _labs?!_"

The Mews needed no prompting. Off they went, grabbing the spare knives by the door. Lettuce felt a thrill of nervousness. Everyone was so uncontrolled while fighting, and all that delicate equipment in the lab…it was a recipe for disaster. _Shirogane-san will lose all of that data, and any new projects going on in the labs will be ruined!_ Ahead of her, Ichigo burst through the doors into the lab. The rest of the Mews charged after her and stopped. Lettuce peered over Mint's head.

Pai stood in front of one of the data mainframes, some sort of scanner in his hand. The other two Cyniclons were nowhere to be seen, but Lettuce guessed they were somewhere else in the lab. The tall alien turned toward them, dark eyes glowing faintly. The dim lighting gave him an aura of menace.

"Hey you, hold it right there!" Ichigo shouted. "Just what do you think you're doing?!"

Zakuro tapped the Lead Mew on the shoulder. "The other two, Ichigo."

"I'll fight him," Lettuce said, stepping forward. She was a little stunned by her own courage. "Everyone, you should go look for the other two."

"Right," said Mint. "Thanks, Lettuce."

As the rest of the Mews took off into the lab, Lettuce unsheathed the knives. They felt unbalanced in her hands, and the porpoise Mew longed for her castanets and guns. Her bright green gaze locked with Pai's deep violet one. The scanner vanished from his hand, and he pulled his plasma guns from his belt. Lettuce gulped. Abruptly, the plasma guns vanished as well, replaced by a dagger in his right hand.

"Why are you…?"

"It would be unfair for me to use such weapons while you are armed solely with human steel," Pai replied simply. He stepped away from the mainframe and assumed a defensive posture.

Lettuce stepped towards him, swinging with her right knife. His came up to block, and her blade caught on his guard. They paused, muscles straining. Lettuce's gaze wandered over the weapon in her opponent's hand, as it did every fight. Twenty centimeters of blued steel, razor-sharp, connected to a hilt that seemed designed for his hand. The guard was designed specifically to catch a blow, and the hilt was wire-wrapped for a better grip. The wires were of some violet metal, the same hue as his eyes.

_Beautiful_, Lettuce thought. Just like all his other weapons. Had she been able, she would have loved to inspect this blade, to interpret the design as only someone who adored objects of battle could, to hold it in her hands and feel the balance. She was sure it was perfect, like everything else he used—he'd designed them all himself, she could tell.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, the green-haired Mew dodged Pai's oncoming fist and sprang back out of range. The two circled, looking for gaps in each other's guards. Pai moved like a dancer, lithe and graceful. Lettuce felt clumsy by comparison, plodding and all too human. He struck suddenly, with incredible speed, and she barely had time to deflect his strike. She hit back just as hard, and he dodged.

The next few moments were a flurry of exchanged blows, steel ringing on steel. At times they were mere centimeters apart, or only a hairsbreadth, and then the next apart at arm's length, or more. It felt less like a battle and more a dance.

Without warning, Lettuce's knives knocked Pai's dagger out of his grasp. The Cyniclon yelped in surprise, rubbing his stinging palm. Lettuce sheathed her knives and stared him down. A slight smile crossed Pai's face.

"Impressive, Mew Lettuce," he said, almost inaudibly. At that volume, his sing-song accent was more pronounced, turning his words to music. "You are a finely tuned weapon. I would enjoy taking more time to investigate, but we have no more time today." He teleported off, leaving Lettuce alone in the lab. Only a few seconds passed before the rest of the Mews returned, however.

"That damn Kisshu!" Ichigo fumed. "I can't believe him! He—of all people—I swear I'm gonna—"

"He broke seven petri dishes with samples in them before we could stop him," Zakuro said.

"Stupid Taruto used me as a trampoline," Berry grumbled.

"The little creep set some kind of nasty frog chimaera on us," Mint growled.

"Pudding threw Taruto into Kisshu and Ichigo-no-nee-chan, na no da!" Pudding exclaimed.

Lettuce smiled, suppressing a giggle. It sounded like she and Pai were the most civilized fighters. They hadn't broken a thing. The Mews left the lab to report to Shirogane and Keiichiro on the outcome of the assault. As they went, Lettuce glanced worriedly back at the lab. If the aliens could get in, then what stopped them from sneaking in, planting an explosive, and obliterating the Tokyo Headquarters? She would have to express this worry to Keiichiro and see if they could do something to keep the aliens out.

**A/N: Alright, third actual chapter. Kinda filler-ish, but the plot gets rolling next chapter-and I mean really rolling.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks to that review from Rafel666, I'm going to ****_finish_**** this! Now, onto the chapter!**

Ichigo paced her room restlessly. It was midnight on the day of the assessment, and while she usually had no trouble going to sleep after assessments, she found herself still full of energy. Probably thanks to the aliens in the lab. Fighting Kisshu always left her antsy. She blamed that sly smirk of his, or the way his gaze always wandered about thirty centimeters down from eye contact—it made her want to punch his lights out. The redhead glanced at her door. Even though it was closed, the thought of wandering the base was tempting. Maybe it would settle her racing thoughts and dispel the extra energy.

The Mew opened her door quietly and slipped out into the hallway. Everyone's doors were closed, since Shirogane ruthlessly enforced a 22:00 curfew, but the lights were still on in Lettuce's room. Ichigo's sharp ears caught the soft whir of electric-powered tools. Zakuro's lights were on as well, but her room was snow-fall silent. Ichigo shrugged slightly and padded off down the hall, not wanting to disturb her teammates—whatever they were doing.

Her wandering took her down to the labs, where she lingered outside the doors and eavesdropped on the scientists for a while.

"…have to do something to keep them out of the base, or we'll be facing more raids like the last one." That was Shirogane.

"I'm looking into the possibilities, Ryou," Keiichiro replied. "We could potentially use an energy field similar to the one I created for Mew Pudding's weapon, but that would use an enormous amount of energy to keep something large enough to shield the entire base for extended periods of time, the modifications would be extensive to allow physical passage but prevent teleportation, and it would need to come down periodically to update the system, leaving us unprotected for hours at a time on a regular basis."

"We could get government permission to use that new power source that was developed for interstellar travel."

"Too costly. That would put us in debt, and the government subsidies are beginning to run low."

"We're moving too slowly," Ryou complained. "The next phase of Project Mew needs to begin as soon as possible."

"We can't move any faster, either. Everything depends on all branches, not just ours. We can't move forward until everyone is ready," Keiichiro replied.

Ichigo lost interest. They weren't discussing anything cool, like weapon upgrades or new strategies to get rid of the aliens, just money problems and base defense. Not that those weren't important, she just didn't care all that much. Her job was fighting aliens, not making money or weaponry. She padded back to the stairs and up to the next level.

Upon exiting back into the hallway, Ichigo noticed something odd. Shirogane and Keiichiro were downstairs in the lab, so why was there a light on in the Briefing Room? It wasn't even the usual light, the dimness from ambient lighting and the projector. This looked like projector-light alone, which never happened. The Mew walked as quietly as she possibly could, sticking close to the wall to avoid making a silhouette and alerting anyone in there—if there was anyone in there.

Movement in a doorway caught Ichigo's attention, and the Mew tensed. The thing moved again. Ichigo balled her fists. Abruptly, whatever it was flew at her, and Ichigo yelped and swung—and pulled up short, realizing she'd nearly hit MASHA.

"Oops," she whispered. "Sorry, buddy."

"It's okay! It's okay!" the tiny AI chirped back.

"Do you know what's going on in there?" Ichigo asked, indicating the Briefing Room. The pink lights powering the robot's 'eyes' went blue as its powerful computer interfaced with the one in the Briefing Room.

"Video! Video for Ichigo!"

"Really?"

"Really! Really!"

Ichigo slipped into the Briefing Room and waited for MASHA to boot up the computer and projector. Before long, a video link was displayed on the screen. The address it had been sent from was scrambled, as was the name of the creator, but the time it had been received was clearly recorded. The video was only a few minutes old. The title on it read, in English: For Mews. Ichigo clicked on it.

The video was poor quality—recorded by an old-style webcam rather than the livestream equipment Project Mew used. The background had been blurred beyond recognition, but the person doing the video was distinctive. Pale hair covered half of the Mew's face, black foxy ears poked through the sleek blonde mane. The wings tucked behind the Mew's back were all too distinctive, though. This was the missing Eastern Seaboard Mew, Calliope. Her face was intense.

"Hello, Mew Calliope here. First and foremost, to my family—I'm not dead, and I'm not captured. Don't worry. Everyone else: you need to hear this. Millions of lives are at stake here." The audio quality was poor as well, but there was no mistaking the urgency in her tone.

"I can't say too much over video. Even though I programmed this file to self-destruct after playthrough and encrypted it so it's untraceable, there's still a chance your Coordinator could get a hold of it and ruin everything. This is critical information here, something Project Mew doesn't want anyone else to know. It's also the reason I'm on the run; my Coordinator knows that I know, and this is stuff they _terminate_ you for. I had to leave so they wouldn't kill me.

The whole 'protecting the Earth' thing isn't the whole point of Project Mew. There's a second agenda, a goal in the making since almost the beginning. And if this goes through, there's more than just Earth at stake. I'm coming to each base that watches this to tell you everything, so keep an eye out for me. And _don't tell anyone_."

A second voice spoke from off-camera. Young. Male. Anxious. "Calliope, you need to hurry. There isn't much time left."

"I know. I got it, I'll wrap up in a second." She returned her gaze to the webcam. "Yeah. Don't tell anyone who's not a Mew. Not the Coordinators, not the Heads, not the scientists—and not anyone overly attached to them, either. Don't trust anything they tell you about what happened to me. I wasn't captured, I'm not rogue—this is an escape from something nobody with a conscience could do. I can't work for Project Mew any longer. And you'll leave too once you know. Calliope out." The video ended, and the link vanished from the file folder. Ichigo blinked, stunned.

"Well. Um. What?" The Mew turned to her small, fluffy companion. "Did you film that, MASHA?"

"Filmed it! Filmed it!"

All in all, it was a very weird video. The secrecy, the nervousness in the girl's actions and voice, her claims of a second purpose of Project Mew, the 'millions of lives at risk'…none of it made any sense. Maybe Mew Calliope was just crazy. But something in her manner said otherwise. She didn't seem crazy, just nervous. Why would she run away? What would a Mew have to fear from the people who created her?

"What the hell's going on?" Ichigo asked, half to herself.

"What the hell? What the hell?" MASHA parroted.

"Shhh! Don't swear! Shirogane will kill me if he thinks I taught you to cuss! Delete 'hell' from your data banks!"

"Delete!"

Ichigo had to tell the rest of her team. There was no way to leave them out of this. She ran for Zakuro's room and threw the door open, just in time to see the older Mew shove something under her pillow. Her wolf ears went down and back, looking nervous.

"Come on, Zakuro. I need you to help me get everyone else up," Ichigo said.

"What for?" the Tactician asked, ears pricking back up.

"Something weird happened, and I need to show everyone." Ichigo paused. "I'll get Lettuce and Pudding, you take Mint and Berry?"

Zakuro nodded. The wolf Mew stood, stretching those long, powerful legs, and padded past Ichigo into the hallway. She disappeared into Mint's room. Ichigo walked across the hall to Lettuce's room and knocked quietly on the door.

"Come in," Lettuce called from the other side. Ichigo opened the door to find the other Mew sitting on her bed with safety goggles on her face, surrounded by tools, circuitry, and steel—exactly the way Lettuce liked it. "Oh, Ichigo-san! Do you need something?"

"Something weird happened and I need to show everyone. Can you put your project down and come over to my room?"

"O-okay." Lettuce removed her goggles and set aside the screwdriver she'd been working with, before getting up and walking past Ichigo through her door.

Ichigo opened the door to Pudding's room and was tackled by the tamarin Mew. Pudding looked sleepy but excited, brown eyes focused on the older Mew's face.

"Pudding heard Ichigo-no-nee-chan talking to Lettuce-no-nee-chan, na no da! What's going on, na no da?"

"I can't tell you right now, Pudding," Ichigo said. "Come on, we'll talk about it in my room."

"Hai, na no da!" Pudding scampered across the hallway to Ichigo's bedroom, leaping through the door. Ichigo heard a startled yelp. A second later, Lettuce said, "P-pudding-chan! Please, be more careful!"

Zakuro emerged from Berry's room, looking mildly irritated. That slight scowl would translate—on anyone else—to pitching a fit. She carried a half-asleep Mint on her back.

"Berry won't wake up," Zakuro said simply.

"Is she really that deep asleep or just being lazy?" Ichigo asked.

"Asleep," came the reply. "We'll leave her out."

The Mews congregated in Ichigo's room. Zakuro settled on the foot of the bed, Mint seated right next to her. Pudding had taken a seat on the floor and bounced excitedly in place. Lettuce had taken over Ichigo's chair, straddling the back with her legs and chin resting on the top. Ichigo sat on her bedside table after shoving her alarm clock to the side. MASHA hovered beside the feline Mew's right ear.

"So, why are we being dragged out of bed at midnight for the second night in a row?" Mint groused, yawning hugely. She leaned her head on Zakuro's shoulder. The wolf Mew's left ear twitched slightly.

"Zakuro and I should've told you guys this earlier—one of the American teams is missing a Mew. She disappeared last night during the aliens' raid. Today she sent out some kind of video message, I think it went to every base, sort of explaining why she went missing. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, though…" Ichigo trailed off, unable to explain.

"Play it, Ichigo-no-nee-chan!" Pudding said.

"Okay. MASHA?" Ichigo looked at her fluffy sidekick.

"Playing, playing!" MASHA projected the video onto the wall, and the clip played. The rest of the Mews watched intently. Ichigo noticed a few more details, such as the way the Mew's ears kept twitching as though listening for an attacker. The unknown boy didn't appear on screen.

"That was disturbing," said Mint.

"The boy who spoke," Lettuce said hesitantly, "He sounds like a Cyniclon."

"What makes you think that?" Mint asked.

"I-I don't know, it's just….well…they sound like he does in the video!"

"How do you know stuff like that?"

"Um, well, ah, um—"

"Mint," Ichigo said. The lorikeet Mew stopped staring Lettuce down.

"What?"

"Ask like this: Lettuce, how _do_ you know what Cyniclons sound like?"

"Well." The green-haired Mew took a deep breath. "Sometimes when I'm fighting Pai he'll make a comment, and I've gotten good at listening to accents, and the boy in the clip has that same sort of accent as Pai does."

"Lettuce-no-nee-chan is really smart, na no da," said Pudding. "Pudding never noticed that, na no da."

"You're a lot younger," Zakuro said.

"I didn't notice either," Ichigo agreed. As if on cue, MASHA played the part of the clip when the boy spoke. And sure enough, there was an accent, a curious lilt to his speech.

_"Calliope, you need to hurry. There isn't much time left."_ No human language made accents like that, and Ichigo had heard a lot of accented English in the last few days.

"She's right," Mint said, sounding surprised. "Why didn't any of us notice before?"

"We were probably too busy fighting," Ichigo said. _But why would a Mew work with those…freaks? They're our enemies! We've fought them all our lives; why turn and work for someone trying to destroy humanity?_

_What could possibly be so bad that a Mew would turn on her own kind?_

**A/N: Quick chapter there, but here comes the plot! What is the second goal of Project Mew? Why ****_would_**** a Mew turn? Keep reading and find out-but I need your OCs to do this! I'm counting on you!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Wow, I'm on fire with this one! Special thanks to Rafel666, whose delightful OCs caused my whole plot to fall into place.**

* * *

Mint hated lulls in the fighting. Not to say that she enjoyed the constant chaos of the battlefield—quite the opposite, she preferred quiet and order, sense and sensibility. But she hated the tension that accompanied a break. Not knowing when the next strike would come left her feathers ruffled. And for the last week and a half, since the bizarre video message Ichigo had shown them, the aliens had been too quiet for Mint's liking. Then again, unless the American Mew actually _had_ been captured or turned traitor and was just bluffing, the Cyniclons were probably missing one of their own and had gone on lockdown or something. Either way, it left the Mews with too much free-time on their hands and too little to do with it. The lorikeet Mew had taken the opportunity to practice a little, and she stood in the training room with her bow in her hands, gazing down the shaft of her arrow at her target.

The bow was a work of art, designed just for her. It was an elegant recurve, with old-fashioned yew limbs and a draw weight of nearly 120 pounds of force—capable of punching through a chimaera's skull. While the wooden bow was a bit…regressive for the Mew Project, she'd broken enough fancy glass-reinforced polymer and bent enough compound steel bows during training that Keiichiro had been forced to resort to wooden bows to withstand her powerful draw. Her arrows were another story, steel-tipped with a carbon-fiber spine and 5-inch right helical feathers.

Mint felt those feathers tickle her cheek. She exhaled softly, releasing the arrow as she did so. The bowstring _thrummed_, the arrow hissed through the air and thudded home in the center of the bull's-eye. The Mew sprang airborne, using the rubbery mat to give her more lift, and dove aside as a baseball flung at her from a machine behind the target. Other targets hanging from chains, raised on poles, or launched at random, began moving. Flying baseballs simulated attacks, while the moving targets were actual targets in combat.

Her next arrow left the string, shattering a launched target. The third slammed through one mounted on a pole, the head emerging from the back of the foam target. Mint folded her wings, dropping to avoid a baseball, and twisted midair to dodge another. Arrow after arrow flew, smashing or piercing targets, knocking baseballs out of the air, all hitting their targets dead-center.

Mint knew Shirogane had rigged this training session to provide a special challenge for her: the machine firing baseballs and controlling the targets would continue to function until she hit a certain target. She zipped through the air, feeling embarrassingly hummingbird-like, trying to inspect the targets, launching arrows all the while.

_Which one? Which one is it?_ Mint knew Shirogane was clever enough not to make the target a different color or shape, that was too easy. It might be smaller or larger, though no two targets were the same size. Or maybe…

Weaving around a baseball, Mint flew towards the baseball launcher. She hovered just over top of it, out of the range of its projectiles. Nothing. She landed atop it and leaned over the side. No target there. Not on the other sides, either.

_Tell me it's not…_ Mint leaned over the side, peering into one of the launchers—and pulled her head back immediately to avoid a black eye. But that quick glance had been enough to tell her what she needed to know. There, at the back where the launcher curved down into the main body of the machine, was a target. The bull's-eye had been replaced with a button. Mint groaned and went airborne once more.

"Shirogane Ryou, you are a _wonderful_ human being," she said sarcastically. Shame he wasn't around to hear her.

Mint flew to the wall and hovered there, waiting for the launcher to focus on her. She ducked, avoiding an oncoming baseball, and drew her arrow back. The fletching brushed her cheek, and she sighted down the shaft. Automatically, she adjusted her aim up slightly to account for drop, inhaled deeply, and exhaled. _Thrum-whump!_ A baseball launched seconds before met her arrow midflight and fell to the ground.

The lorikeet Mew swore under her breath, dodged the next baseball, and fired again. _Thrum-whump!_ Again, her arrow was intercepted. This time, she dodged again and watched the firing pattern. Every three seconds, so long as it focused on her, the launcher spat a baseball at her head. Three seconds. More than enough.

_Thrum-whump Thrum-whack!_ Two arrows, launched in as many seconds. The first one was intercepted by a baseball. The second hit home at the center of the button, and the machine whirred to a stop. Mint landed, folding her wings and lowering her bow. Quiet applause sounded from behind her, and Mint spun on her heel to find Zakuro standing in the doorway. The older Mew was drenched, though whether by sweat or water was debatable.

"Zakuro-oneesama! Were you watching?" Mint flushed, a bit embarrassed. Zakuro would have figured it out in minutes, but it took Mint far longer. Zakuro smiled slightly.

"Only the end. Well done, Mew Mint." Mint's blush deepened.

"I'm sure you would have done much better than me…" the bird Mew paused, then changed the subject. "So what were you doing, Oneesama?"

"Running the obstacle course."

Cue awkward silence as both Mews stood still, staring at each other and wondering desperately what the other was thinking. Mint struggled to calm her racing pulse—faster than normal, that is, since one effect of her Ultramarine Lorikeet DNA was a heartbeat twice as fast as an ordinary human. _Deep breaths, Mint. It's just Zakuro-oneesama; it's not like its some stranger from another base or anything. There's nothing to freak out about, right?_

Mint's mini-panic was cut short by the alarm going off. Fortunately, not the ear-splitting klaxon that signaled aliens in the base. This was the less irritating, quieter one that signaled alien life-forms detected within 60 meters. The two locked eyes and scrambled for their uniforms and weaponry.

* * *

Zakuro did _not_ like the looks of the situation waiting for the team outside. All three aliens and three chimaera anima, lurking just close enough to trigger the alarm—and just sitting there, not moving a muscle. None of them even seemed to blink. Zakuro's ears went down and back. She didn't trust this one bit. It reeked of a trap.

"Hey, you!" Ichigo shouted stepping forward. "Just what are you freaks doing?!"

Kisshu smirked. "Waiting for you, Ko-ne-ko-chan!" His grin grew wider and wider, the look of a predator that has just cornered its prey. "We prepared a special surprise for our favorite Mews, and we'd _hate_ for you to have missed it."

With no further warning, three more chimaera exploded out of the woods and lunged at the Mews, who had no choice but to scatter or be trampled. These were _huge_, at least twice as large as an ordinary chimaera. Zakuro felt her tail curling under and shook herself. There would be no backing down, no fear. She was sure they could smell it.

As the Mews ran like chickens with their heads cut off, trying desperately to avoid being smashed by the new chimaera, Pai spoke up. "Tokyo Resistance, Trial One. Predicted mortality rate, 85.37%."

"Our supervisors told us to hurry up and kill you old hags so we can get this done quicker," Taruto chipped in. His wide amber eyes glittered with malice.

"Who are you calling 'old hag'?" Ichigo shouted, flipping over a teacher's-desk-size paw. "You goddamn midget!"

Zakuro blocked her yelling teammates and, as she dodged a swipe of a huge tail, locked eyes with Mint. The bird Mew nodded, cobalt eyes hard. An arrow spat from Mint's bow, hitting the reptilian chimaera straight in the eye. It shrieked in agony, shaking like a wet dog. Then one of the smaller chimaera, a vaguely batlike monster, tackled Mint out of the air. Zakuro lost sight of the other Mew as her reptilian foe loomed over her.

_It's too big. A foolish design,_ thought Zakuro.

She flipped the safety switch on her plasma gun and fired three times in quick succession. The first two missed—the chimaera was surprisingly agile—but the third seared a hole through one monstrous forearm. The creature toppled, unleashing an ear-rending shriek of pain. Zakuro yipped and flattened her ears against her head. Too close, too loud. The thing lay there, seemingly immobilized, glowering at the Mew. Zakuro shook her head at the impracticality of the chimaera and raised her gun.

Unexpectedly, the downed chimaera spat at Zakuro. The Mew jumped back instinctively, and counted herself lucky she'd done so. The saliva gave off acrid fumes and the ground it landed on fizzed and dissolved. Acid. Not good. Zakuro edged around the puddle, lining the chimaera's head up in her sights for her next shot.

The chimaera lurched back upright, dragging its ruined leg, and attempted to pounce. Zakuro hurled herself aside, firing off a shot as she did so. It missed her target's head, but burnt straight through the chimaera's shoulder. Zakuro dodged another stream of acid spittle.

Just as the chimaera forced itself back upright, it swayed and toppled over, nearly crushing Zakuro. The other chimaera shrieked in unison, and Zakuro recognized the effects of Ichigo's Strawberry Bell. Now certain it wouldn't be getting up any time soon, Zakuro put the chimaera out of its misery and used the corpse as a platform to get a look at the battlefield.

The fight was going badly. Ichigo mashed all three of the buttons on her Bell, amping up the volume as high as they would go with one hand while attempting to fend off Kisshu with the larger of her two knives. Mint and Berry, an unexpected duo considering Mint's general disgust with the other Mew, took on all three of the smaller chimaera, narrowly avoiding injuries but missing just as often as their attacks hit. Pudding had one of the bigger ones immobilized in an energy prison and was currently occupied with Taruto. Lettuce struggled desperately with the other mega-chimaera and Pai.

As she watched, the chimaera fighting Lettuce swatted the porpoise Mew aside. Lettuce slammed into a tree, crying out with pain. Without thinking, Zakuro leapt into the fray. She flipped her gun back into whip mode and lashed at the chimaera. It stopped short and ducked the streamer of plasma, small, predatory eyes locking on Zakuro.

"Z-Zakuro-san!" Lettuce gasped.

"Get up," Zakuro replied, flicking her whip to keep the chimaera at bay.

It wouldn't last long, though. She could see the muscles in its hind legs tensing to spring, short fur rippling as its ruff rose. Massive canine teeth were bared in a snarl. Zakuro snarled back, hearing Lettuce push herself upright.

"Are you alright?" Zakuro asked. She was growing frustrated, as she couldn't move from the spot until she knew Lettuce would be fine and the chimaera grew bolder with every flick of the whip.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," said Lettuce. The green Mew stepped up beside Zakuro, who noticed something. One of Lettuce's newly-rebuilt ray-guns was spitting sparks. Lettuce caught Zakuro's gaze. "When I repaired them, I upgraded them so they would have more shots. The compensation for that is a more violent explosion when the systems fail. This one's about to go off, and—" Lettuce's eyes widened. "Zakuro-san! Look out!"

Zakuro turned just in time to take the full force of the chimaera's charge. Girl and beast flew through the air, slamming into a tree. Zakuro howled in pain as the rough bark rammed into her back. Claws dug into her stomach, failing to puncture her bodysuit but tearing her skin nonetheless.

The chimaera's fierce yellow eyes bored into Zakuro's, and the Mew knew she was finished. Her plasma whip was a useless toy, just out of reach. Her large knife was pinned under the huge paw that crushed her abdomen, making her pelvis creak. Her small knife would be utterly useless, unable to penetrate the chimaera's thick hide. But rather than close her eyes and wait for death, Zakuro stared defiantly into its piercing eyes.

Abruptly, something small smashed into the chimaera's side, exploding and shredding the thick skin and sending bits of fur, muscle and bone in all directions. The chimaera wailed in agony, sinking to the ground. Zakuro screamed as well as the massive paw applied more pressure. But the paw shifted, and Zakuro pushed through the pain, grasping the hilt of her large knife and ramming the blade into the chimaera's paw. The creature pulled its paw away, staggering back a few gigantic paces.

Lettuce—of course it had been Lettuce, Zakuro realized, since the thing that exploded could have been nothing but the Techno's failing ray-gun—used her remaining weapon to finish the chimaera with a shot to the head. It crumpled in a gory, messy heap. Lettuce immediately rushed over to Zakuro and helped the older Mew to her feet.

Zakuro winced as the wounds to her stomach pulled with each move she made. Her hips and spine throbbed. Her back ached from its unexpected meeting with the tree. But she held herself erect as always, ignoring pain that would have crippled an ordinary human. She put her hand against her stomach, and it came away red. Lettuce gulped.

"Zakuro-san, are you okay?! Maybe you should sit out for a bit…"

Zakuro locked eyes with Lettuce. "I'm fine. It's not serious." It wouldn't hurt the other Mew to not know, and Zakuro was relieved that her bodysuit hadn't torn and still concealed her injuries.

A sound behind her, like someone landing softly on grass, caused Zakuro to whirl around, knife raised. Her violet eyes locked with a pair a shade or two darker. Pai's eyes narrowed, just as lethal as his chimaera's and twice as angry.

"So, you're not dead," he said, completely deadpan. "Inhuman stamina and pain resistance confirmed. Teamwork on an unprecedented level. Use of weapons for uses they were not designed for indicates high intelligence. However…" The alien darted towards them, light and quick, whipping his miniguns from their holsters. Zakuro darted for her plasma whip, flipping it back into gun mode and aiming for Pai's head. He stopped, eyes darting between Zakuro and Lettuce.

"Weapon accuracy is only 18%. And Mew Lettuce's weapon has perhaps three more shots before it malfunctions. Surrender and your deaths will be swift and merciful. Resist and you will suffer for it," Pai finished.

"Never," Lettuce whispered. Pai turned his head and looked at her. "We won't surrender, for the sake of the future. Even if you kill us for it, we will fight for the sake of our futures."

Zakuro nodded in agreement. "If surrender means certain death, then fighting back increases our odds, however slim they may be."

"So be it," Pai replied. He raised his guns, aiming one at each Mew's head. "Goodbye—"

Lettuce pulled the trigger. Pai blinked out of existence just long enough to dodge the ray before reappearing and firing on the two. Lettuce hurled herself aside, and Zakuro dodged and fired. Again, Pai teleported just in time. Zakuro nodded and raced to stand beside Lettuce.

"I fire, you fire," she whispered in the other Mew's ear. "On three." Pai shot, two quick pulls of his own trigger, and the Mews dropped flat. Zakuro shot at Pai, and while he teleported, she ran behind his spot.

"One! Two! Three!" Zakuro fired on _two, _Lettuce a second later at _three_.

Pai dodged Zakuro's plasma blast—and teleported back into the line of fire. He dropped, clutching a smoking wound to the chest. As Zakuro stepped forward, raising her gun to finish him, Pai looked up and glared directly into her eyes. Zakuro froze, chilled by his icy look, and Pai took the opportunity to teleport away.

Lettuce took off, headed for the beleaguered Ichigo, and Zakuro ran for Pudding. The youngest Mew had driven off Taruto, but her barrier around the remaining huge chimaera weakened every time it threw its toad-like body against the walls of the container. Judging by the color it glowed, almost red compared to the usual yellow-orange, Zakuro deduced that this was the third time Pudding had activated her weapon. The next time it broke, the rings that formed the perimeter would be out of power and useless.

As she watched, the energy prison 'shattered' into nothing and the chimaera leapt at Pudding. The tamarin Mew flipped out of the way, evading the chimaera's lashing tongue with astonishing skill. A knife flashed, and the tip of the tongue flopped uselessly on the ground. The rest coiled around Pudding's waist.

Zakuro flipped her gun back into whip mode and, with a quick swipe, severed the tongue mere inches from Pudding. The chimaera lurched away, roaring, and Zakuro helped Pudding pry the tongue off her.

"Thanks, Zakuro-no-nee-chan, na no da! Pudding would have been in real trouble if Onee-chan hadn't been here to help, na no da!" The blonde Mew, rather than freaking out over the very real possibility of being eaten, seemed excited. "Let's finish this quick, na no da!" Zakuro nodded, and the two sprinted towards the chimaera.

The one thing Zakuro regretted about wielding a plasma weapon, other than the lack of accuracy, was the lack of a true cutting edge. Any wounds she inflicted cauterized themselves as they were made, meaning if her enemy survived her first attack they wouldn't bleed to death during the fight.

Pudding taunted the chimaera, leaping all around it. Occasionally, the tamarin Mew ducked _under_ the chimaera, and when it lifted its squat body to look for her, she jumped up onto its back. Her knives were nearly ineffectual, but evidently annoyed the chimaera. It flailed and twisted, croaking in irritation. Pudding was a gadfly, buzzing incessantly—and all the while, Zakuro lined up for the perfect shot.

As the chimaera turned, Zakuro saw her chance. The amphibious creature was so distracted by Pudding that it had forgotten the older Mew, and as it turned to follow Pudding it exposed its soft chest to Zakuro. The lupine Mew caught the weakness in her sights and fired. The plasma bolt roared through the air, searing through the chimaera's chest. Its eyes went dull, and the monster collapsed.

Zakuro paused to catch her breath, pressing her forearm to her injured stomach, and looked around. Berry smashed in the skull of the last chimaera. Mint was retrieving her arrows from the corpse of another. Kisshu took one look at the situation and teleported, leaving a cut and bruised Ichigo yelling at the spot he'd last been.

None of the Mews had come out unscathed. Mint had a long tear in the leg of her bodysuit, revealing a gash down her calf. Berry's hair was caked with drying blood, trails of which ran down the side of her face. Lettuce moved with a limp. Pudding had a goose-egg and bruises already purpling the side of her face. Ichigo was covered in gashes and held her left arm at an odd angle. But, for all their injuries, everyone had come out alive.

_So much for 85% mortality rate_, thought Zakuro. _That would have killed five of us if his calculations were accurate._

As the Mews walked back to the base, Zakuro's ears caught the sound of heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs. The door flew open, and Shirogane emerged. His blond hair was a wild mess, those keen blue eyes wide and slightly panicky.

"Everyone, come to the Briefing Room immediately. Don't bother cleaning up—this is more important!"

"No, it isn't," Ichigo protested. "Everyone's hurt, and I can't just ignore my team because our Coordinator says so! Give us a chance to get patched up so none of us bleed to death or something!"

Shirogane frowned, looking mildly annoyed. Zakuro recognized that posture as irritated, though—with himself for not remembering that his Mews were still somewhat human, or with the Mews for getting injured? He sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and said, "Fine. Go take care of yourselves. You have ten minutes."

* * *

**A/N: Aaand here we go! Buckle up, everyone-next chapter things start getting bumpy. See you all then!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Well, I still need the Techno for a complete Eastern Seaboard Mew. Other than that, let the story continue!**

* * *

Lettuce winced, even though her own wounds were minimal—she'd twisted her right knee dodging Pai's first shot—as she bandaged Zakuro's torso. She'd known Zakuro was injured, the older Mew's screams while the chimaera crushed her had been proof enough, but she hadn't realized just how bad the injuries were. The older Mew's stomach had gouges ten centimeters long from the chimaera's claws, in spite of their failure to puncture her clothing. Three were deep enough to need stitches. She was glad Ichigo had bartered for more time, since it had taken six of their allotted ten minutes to clean Zakuro's wounds.

Of the six Mews, Zakuro and Mint had the worst injuries, though she was worried about Pudding and Berry too. Head injuries bleed a lot, after all, but she'd decided that the worst they'd have to deal with were stitches for Berry and possibly a concussion for Pudding. Ichigo had gotten off the lightest, with a few shallow cuts and bruises thanks to an overenthusiastic Cyniclon with an obvious interest outside fighting.

"Please be careful, Zakuro-san," Lettuce said, tucking the end of the bandage under the rest. "Try not to move too much or you'll tear the stitches."

"Hm," Zakuro replied. Her ears twitched, and Lettuce took that as a sign that the older Mew had at least heard her. The 'hm' probably meant she would disregard that if the aliens decided to attack again. And that would be just like her, the aloof 'big sister' of the team.

Just as Zakuro finished putting her shirt on, Shirogane poked his head into the locker room. "Are you _finished_ yet?" he demanded. "This really can't wait any longer."

"_Yes_, Shirogane," Ichigo growled. "We're done; just let me put my pants on! Geez!"

Shirogane turned a shade of mauve Lettuce had never seen on a living being and ducked out of the room. Mint snickered, and Ichigo popped out of a locker, fully clothed and laughing.

"Did you see his _face?_" the redhead gasped.

"Priceless!" Mint agreed.

Berry rolled her eyes and grumbled in irritation. "Grow up a little, will you?"

"No thanks," Ichigo said. She turned on her heel and left the room, tossing her flaming hair for good measure. Berry harrumphed and walked after her, followed in short order by Mint, Zakuro, and Pudding. Lettuce was the last one out the door, pausing only to close it behind her.

Shirogane was waiting impatiently outside the door. He leaned up against the wall, eyes closed and legs crossed in a semblance of nonchalance, but his fingers drumming anxiously against his thigh betrayed him. He glanced at the door, blue eyes flashing in the fluorescent light. He jerked his chin upwards in terse acknowledgement and headed for the stairs, the Mews a few steps behind.

* * *

Pudding tried to contain her excitement. Whatever Shirogane-no-nii-chan had to show them, it was probably cool, and she was always keen to know what was going on. She personally hoped he was designing the next team of Mews—Pudding wanted to be someone's big sister, but as the youngest she knew she would have to wait for the next team. The thought made her bounce lightly on the balls of her feet as she descended the stairs, just barely avoiding crashing into Zakuro-no-nee-chan.

The Briefing Room was lit as usual, but this time the projection on the wall was a series of globes and lines so complex Pudding couldn't make heads or tails of it. She knew it wasn't DNA, though, since it was nothing like a double helix. Keiichiro-onii-san paced in front of the screen. He looked nervous.

"Ah, Ryou, girls. There you are—I was beginning to get worried," Keiichiro-onii-san said.

"It took them a little longer than expected," Shirogane-no-nii-chan said. Not for the first time, Pudding wished both of her onii-san had ears and a tail like Ichigo-no-nee-chan, Zakuro-no-nee-chan, and Berry-no-nee-chan. It was easier to understand someone when their body backed up their words. Shirogane-no-nii-chan turned and faced the Mews. "Girls, we've got another assignment."

"Another one?!" Ichigo exploded. "We almost got killed up there and you want us to add another job to what we're already doing? What the—mph!" Mint had clapped her hand over Ichigo's mouth.

"We didn't want to worry you, but our branch of Project Mew has been having financial difficulties lately," Keiichiro said, his voice mild and soothing. "We had two options, accept a second duty from the government or be shut down and turn you over to the authorities."

"Why would Keiichiro-onii-san and Shirogane-no-nii-chan have to give us to the government, na no da?" Pudding asked.

"It's a matter of money, Pudding," Shirogane said. "If we can't keep this facility operating, it will have to be closed down. Lucky for us, JAXA needed a secure storage space, which we are capable of providing, and a full-time defense force, which comes with the facility."

"So what are we doing, exactly?" Mint asked.

"You're protecting a power source designed for the interstellar exploration program. Evidently the Cyniclons are targeting other space agencies, so JAXA wants a place to store this power source where the aliens won't be able to get to it."

Lettuce looked anxious. "But, Shirogane-san, the aliens got into the base only a week ago. How can we keep it secure?"

"What is this 'power source', anyway?" Ichigo asked, finally prying Mint off her face.

Keiichiro answered Ichigo's question first. "It's a highly complex, stable molecule—we have a diagram of it here. Under normal conditions it's very stable, but if a few volts of electricity are applied, they serve as a catalyst and unravel the bonds between the atoms, releasing tremendous amounts of energy. It's almost like nuclear fission, without the radioactive byproducts. This molecule is rare in nature and difficult to make in a laboratory setting, but small amounts provide more energy than any conventional sources of energy on Earth."

"And as for protecting it," Shirogane cut in, "I'm working with some of the higher-ups in the project to get permission from the space exploration associations to use this power source to give the project the boost it needs to get the aliens off our backs once and for all."

Ichigo's eyes lit up. "Really? That's great!"

"We've already got permission from JAXA to use some of this energy source to upgrade your weapons, and I consider its use essential to ending the global alien threat. So we'll begin the upgrade process immediately, starting with Ichigo." He nodded to the wildcat Mew, indicating that she was to go back upstairs and retrieve her Strawberry Bell. As she left, Lettuce spoke up.

"Um, Shirogane-san, Akasaka-san, there's something that happened while we were fighting that I need to tell you," Lettuce said. "Taruto—one of the aliens—he said that they had orders to finish us off quickly. Pai called it 'Tokyo Resistance', I think."

Shirogane swore under his breath. "We're in trouble, then. I'll bring this to the attention of the higher-ups immediately. Thank you, Lettuce." He turned his attention on the rest of the room. "You can all go and finish up now."

Pudding shrugged and bounded out of the room. The meeting, over all, was boring. She was glad she wasn't the Leader and didn't understand why Berry-no-nee-chan wanted it so badly. It just meant more work and less fun. She skipped up the hallway back toward her room for a quick nap. Her head still hurt a bit from the knock she'd gotten from Taruto—but the fight was definitely worth it. Why her big sisters hadn't wanted her fighting made no sense. It was fun, after all, and Taruto was funny to mess with. She was actually looking forward to the next fight.

* * *

As soon as the Mews were out of the Briefing Room, Keiichiro turned to Shirogane with a concerned look.

"Ryou, why didn't you tell them that other thing?"

"I don't want them worrying too much. It will put them off-balance, and they won't fight as well as they could."

The blond's face was creased with worry, and it bothered Keiichiro to see the premature frown line between his younger partner's brows. An eighteen-year-old was too young to have wrinkles, and Keiichiro blamed it on the responsibility Ryou had taken on after the incident that nearly ruined their branch of the project. In a less stressful world, Ryou would still be the clever, studious boy Keiichiro knew—but less worn down, less fretful.

After a long pause, Ryou added, "That information Lettuce gave us…it worries me. If both sides increase fighting power at the same time, we could stay stuck in this stalemate for another ten years. We can keep making more soldiers, but how long can we hold out? They've already gotten into our base twice, how long before they steal our data on the Project and use it against us?"

"I know," Keiichiro said. "I'll upgrade MASHA's firewall if it will make you more comfortable."

"I would make me more comfortable if someone knew where that American Mew was. If the Cyniclons get ahold of her, that's nearly as good as stealing our data. And they could interrogate her for information or use her as a mole."

"This really is going to be a problem, isn't it."

"Yep." Ryou's sapphire eyes hardened. "The next phase needs to begin as soon as possible. And this power source—the 'Aqua Vitae'—will help us complete that goal."

"We can only hope."

* * *

**A/N: By the way, if you want to submit a Mew, use the submission sheet on my profile rather than the one in chapter 1.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I'm back! Sorry for the wait, but this chapter was an absolute bear to write. In other news, I have the complete Eastern Seaboard Mew team. Special thanks to my sister, Amu Tsukiyomi, XxHellShadowXx, Rafel666, and Raven-Geek-who, by the way, writes beautiful Pai/Lettuce fics, so if that's what you ship you should check her out.**

* * *

Ichigo paced restlessly. As much as she enjoyed a weapon upgrade, she hated how defenseless she felt without her Strawberry Bell within easy reach. And she felt particularly defenseless right now, considering the way Kisshu had acted during their fight that day. He'd always been odd by human standards, but today his behavior had been especially strange. Sure, he'd fought hard, but something in his demeanor told her he was holding back. Those ambery eyes had strange depths and shadows, and Ichigo saw something like pain in them.

Not but a minute before the Mews had run him off, Kisshu had lunged forward, getting through her guard. His eyes flashed dangerously, and Ichigo had felt a thrill of energy run through her—almost like a current of electricity, only this had gone straight to the pit of her stomach and stayed there. Kisshu's lips had just barely brushed her own, lighter than a butterfly's wings, before she shoved him away.

She didn't understand at all. He was her enemy, after all. Why was he always teasing her, giving her cutesy nicknames, flirting with her when he should be trying to kill her? Why did he always single her out at the beginning of a fight focusing all of his attention on her, yet always holding back? Why did he never _really_ try to finish her off? If anything, he played a game; like a pair of cats who had moved into the same territory, feeling each other out, testing the waters before they jumped into anything. But if that brat Taruto was telling the truth and the aliens had orders to hurry up and kill the Mews, then why was Kisshu…? It made no sense. And it bothered her, not knowing, almost as much as being unarmed did.

Nevertheless, Ichigo knew Kisshu would be coming back. He always came back, whether she wanted him to or not. She punched her bedpost, feeling the hollow aluminum crumple under her fist, before shaking her hand and hissing at the pain in her knuckles. She scowled at the dent she'd made, metal molded to the shape of her hand.

"Stupid bedpost. Stupid aliens. Stupid, weird Kisshu." The red-haired Mew flopped back on her bed, fists clenching in the cotton sheets. "Why doesn't anything make sense? It's like we've entered some bizarre alternate reality or something!"

Someone cleared their throat from the doorway, and Ichigo sat up to find Shirogane leaning against the door frame. She was glad to see he'd stayed outside the threshold; the last time he'd come in her room, she'd been completely naked and, in her embarrassment, she'd thrown a combat boot at his head.

"What do you want now?" Ichigo asked, standing up. Shirogane lobbed her Strawberry Bell at her in reply, and she caught it—and nearly dropped it on her foot. The Bell was unexpectedly heavy.

"It's got a few new functions," Shirogane said. "Come back down to the Briefing Room and I'll explain them." Ichigo shrugged. No point in _not_ going, and if she didn't understand everything she would probably break it. She followed Shirogane, so quietly that he kept glancing back at her as if to make sure she was still there.

The projector in the Briefing Room displayed a digital model of the Strawberry Bell, rotating slowly. Shirogane leaned up against the wall, and Ichigo sat down in her chair rather than stay upright. She was rather looking forward to the nap she would take after this. Shirogane tapped a spot on the diagram, a long, rodlike structure attached to the back of the Bell.

"This is your new amplifier. It's got a wider range than the old one, and thanks to the Aqua Vitae—the power source we're protecting—it has more power and a higher volume. If you press the button on it—" here, he tapped an oblong button on the model, "—it causes the device to emit a sonic wave powerful enough to disrupt normal bodily rhythms. Use this only if you have to, because if any of your teammates are within a six-meter radius it will harm them too.

"As for why we increased the range…" Shirogane nodded at MASHA, and a video clip, clearly shot from the robot's camera during the fight, replaced the model Bell. "If you remember, the sound waves from the Bell didn't seem to bother more than a few of your enemies during the fight. After analyzing this recording, I discovered the reason for it."

The video clip displayed Ichigo's fight with Kisshu. Ichigo remembered pressing the buttons on her Bell to activate it, and being shocked when Kisshu smirked at her and ignored it to keep fighting as if nothing was wrong. The first playthrough showed only the fight, but on the second the battle paused and zoomed in on Kisshu's right ear, which was tilted towards MASHA's camera.

There, just barely visible against the alien's earlobe, was a clip.

"What's that?" Ichigo asked.

"As far as I can tell, it's similar to an early twenty-first century hearing aid, only it blocks a certain frequency rather than enhancing it. I suspect all three of the Cyniclons were using it, and they evidently tested it on some of their chimaera anima as well. It seems to block the frequencies broadcast by the Bell. Hopefully, by increasing the number of frequencies it uses we can throw them off-balance long enough to gain an advantage and force them to waste time protecting themselves from your new attack."

MASHA chirped unexpectedly. "Message incoming! Message incoming!"

Shirogane stared at the robot, confused. "Where from?"

"Eastern Seaboard HQ!"

"Alright, display the message."

A screen flickered to life, revealing a young man of twenty or so with dark brown hair and blue-green eyes. He looked mildly panicked. "Mr. Shirogane! Thank God you picked up! Sorry to bug ya, but we need to set up a meeting immediately." His English carried a distinct Brooklyn accent.

"It's alright, Mr. Merrill, you caught me at a good time. What seems to be the problem?" Shirogane replied, switching quickly to English.

"We lost another one today. I need to set up a world meeting _now_. Can you help me out with that?"

"Of course." Shirogane turned his attention to Ichigo and switched back to Japanese. "Ichigo, go get the other Mews. Immediately!"

"Hai!" Ichigo exclaimed. She would have argued with him if the situation hadn't been so urgent.

She sprinted out the door and down the hall, throwing open the first door she came to—Lettuce's. The green-haired Mew was sitting at her desk, working on a blueprint drawing. Ichigo caught a glimpse of what looked like a grip and realized the Techno was designing her next weapon. Ichigo rapped on the doorframe, and Lettuce looked up, surprised.

"Ichigo-san! I-is something wrong?" Ichigo sometimes wished Lettuce wouldn't be so shy and awkward sometimes, but then again, the shyness was what made Lettuce who she was. She probably wouldn't like the green-haired Mew as much if she were bolder.

"Shirogane wants us all in the Briefing Room now. Can you help me get the others down there?"

"Yes, of course," Lettuce said. She carefully set aside her pencil and paper and stood. "Minto-san is in her room resting, I think Zakuro-san is in with her. Pudding-chan went to go get a snack about five minutes ago, and Berry-san went along."

"Okay. I'll get Minto-chan and Zakuro-san; you go get Pudding and Berry."

"Hai." Lettuce was off. Not but a few seconds later, Ichigo heard Lettuce yelp out in the hall and knew the porpoise Mew had tripped.

Ichigo padded up the hallway to Mint's room, opening the door to find the two Mews sprawled on the bed, side-by-side, reading a book and not saying a word. Ichigo envied their companionable silence for a few seconds, hating to ruin the moment. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. The two jumped and glanced up at the door.

"Ichigo!" Mint yelped. "You startled us!" Zakuro chuckled quietly, and Mint flushed crimson. Ichigo rolled her eyes. Sometimes, her teammates made no sense.

"Shirogane wants us in the Briefing Room, and quick. Something really weird's going on, and…"

"It's bugging you," Mint finished.

"Yeah."

Zakuro slid off the bed, lithe and graceful even with ten-centimeter claw marks in her stomach. Mint was a little clumsier, owing to her injured leg. As she stood, it nearly buckled under her. Zakuro caught the lorikeet Mew's wrist, keeping her up, and—much to Ichigo's surprise—Mint flashed the older Mew a quick smile. The two joined Ichigo in the door, and together they made their way down the hall toward the Briefing Room.

Pudding, Berry, and Lettuce fell into step beside them halfway there. The tamarin Mew seemed oddly subdued to Ichigo, her bright brown eyes serious. For once, Berry failed to make an acidic comment, her lips pressed in a thin line and ears down, feline tail twitching. And Lettuce was quieter than usual, if that were possible, though she fiddled anxiously with the end of one green braid.

Ichigo cautiously pushed the door to the Briefing Room, seeing all the projectors lit and displaying the different branches. So many faces, so many people! Mews and staff of all different colors, heights, shapes, all over the walls, more than Ichigo had ever seen before. Many different voices speaking many different languages competed in her ears, almost becoming overwhelming.

Her gaze darted from screen to screen, utterly fascinated. On one, a trio of sable-skinned girls chattered eagerly, their words incomprehensible to her ear. On another, a white-blonde Mew with reindeer antlers and ears discussed something with five others similar in coloration. The diminished-looking Eastern Seaboard Mews—recognizable by their lemur-tailed Leader—hung close together, clearly anxious. They looked...almost hunted.

Ichigo and the rest of Tokyo Mew Mew settled down, waiting for the rest of the Project to log in and introduce themselves. Once the introductions were finished the Eastern Seaboard Coordinator, who had introduced himself as Eli Merrill, cleared his throat.

"We have a situation here," he said, without preamble. "As all of you know, one of our Aces disappeared without a trace last week. That was unusual, and it caused us some concern that the aliens might've taken her to find out what makes the Mews powerful enough to take them on. It got worse today, though—the aliens pulled their Catskill stunt again, and we lost track of our Second, Lyra. What makes it worse is that she was last seen fighting—"

His audio cut out. Simultaneously, all the projectors flickered to black. A long, silent minute passed. Then the audio came back on—but muted. Keiichiro fiddled with a dial, frowning worriedly.

"It isn't working. That's not good at all."

A new voice came over the audio, not muted at all. "Is this stupid thing even working? Damned old tech, absolutely useless piece of—" A loud crackle erupted from the speakers, accompanied by the sound of a fist hitting plastic.

Abruptly, all the projectors lit back up, each displaying the same image—one very familiar to Ichigo. A blonde Mew with one visible eye, scowling uncertainly. She tapped the camera.

"Piece of junk," Mew Calliope mumbled. A second voice, nearly inaudible, spoke from somewhere off-camera. "Oh. It's working?" Her attention returned to the lens. "Hey everyone, Calliope here. This meeting has officially been interrupted for a very important public service announcement." A wicked smirk crossed her face. "Hope you're all listening, 'cuz I'm about to rock your world."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:...Just read it. I won't even bother you with an A/N.**

* * *

Berry stared at the screens, unable to understand what was going on. So this Mew had been missing for over a week, possibly kidnapped by aliens, and nobody had bothered to tell her in case the aliens wanted _her_ too? She could understand her teammates not saying anything—she knew how much they hated her—but why wouldn't Ryou tell her? Did he not want to worry her…or did he care just as little as the other Mews? She shook herself out of it. The other Mew was speaking again.

"As most of you should know, I pretty much disappeared off the face of the Earth a little over a week ago. If you didn't, I would usually suggest crawling back under your rock, except I've got something really important to tell you. Oh, and don't bother trying to leave. I've got remote control of every computer hooked up to Earthnet, and I'll lock you in the room until I've said what I need to say. A very wise man once said that three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Well, as of last week, I'm one of the people they want dead to keep a secret. I got out and hid long enough to stay alive, and unless you guys can kill me right now the secret's about to be an un-secret.

"Project Mew, as you should all know, was started about thirteen years ago, shortly after the Cyniclons sent us their message about killing humanity. The up-front goal was to force the aliens to go away and stop targeting our planet, and to protect the peoples of Earth. We have a right to protect what's ours, after all, and Earth belongs to humanity as a whole. But phase two of the Project isn't anywhere near as morally acceptable. In fact, it's flat-out evil."

_The Mew Project?_ Berry wondered. _Evil? What kind of drugs is this girl doing? The Project is always right._

"Changing subjects for a second, how many of you have seen a baby? I don't need a show of hands, just say something if you have." A muted roar came from the speakers, hundreds of voices talking all at once. Berry murmured her response as well, along with the rest of the older Mews. They'd all seen Pudding, after all.

"I take it that's almost everyone. All you have to do is give the baby a pair of really big ears and you've got a baby Cyniclon. They're almost exactly like us: life cycle, relationships, society…everything. They're us, just in space and floaty." The second voice grumbled something from off-camera, and Calliope turned and glared at the speaker. "Okay, fine. Like us, only _levitating_. Happy? Now, I want you to imagine that baby. I want you to imagine its mother cradling it in her arms, just like any human mother.

"Then I want you to imagine yanking that baby out of her arms, throwing it on the ground, and shooting it in the head."

Berry gaped in shock. There was no way the aliens were anything like what this Mew was claiming—no one could be exactly like humans and want to kill an entire species—but the idea of killing a baby was awful. Even a baby alien. She heard the horrified gasps of her fellow Mews and knew they were thinking the exact same thing. Judging by the chorus of similar shouts from the speakers, many of the other Mews felt the same way. Above the tumult, Coordinator Merrill's voice rang out.

"Don't believe her! She's a rogue, she's gone crazy and is trying to destroy the Project and let the aliens take over Earth!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say," Calliope replied. "Just remember, you're the one who tried to terminate me with a shotgun when you caught me reading the _very top-secret document_ that discussed the goals of Project Mew, Phase Two." Her ruby gaze sharpened. "Who are you going to believe? Me, who's being calm and rational about this; or him, who's trying to shut me up before I can tell you everything?

"Phase Two is to be initiated after we get the aliens to leave our solar system. We are to track them back to their home planet and, quote, 'terminate every potential hostile'. That means _every alien we find_. That means parents. That means kids and old people. That means murdering innocents in cold blood. And that's not okay. It's one thing to hurt someone who's actively trying to kill you. It's a whole 'nother thing to kill people who haven't done anything except be something we don't like. Because it turns us into them, minus their very good reason to be interested in Earth in the first place.

"Your creators made you to be a pawn in a game of cosmic chess. Easily sacrificed and replaced, but surprisingly powerful. Well, I'm not going to be their plaything. Project Mew might own the rights to my DNA, but they don't own _me_. They don't own my personality, my spirit. I do. And I'm taking my freedom, renouncing my association with the Project. I'm going to take a third option, and anyone who wants to stand up and live free or die trying will stand up and join me.

"As of _right now_, I'm declaring war on both Project Mew and the Cyniclons. I'm heading for peace, and anyone who stands in my way is an enemy. You're either with me or against me, and Eastern Seaboard Mew can tell you I'm not easy to stop. You'll have to kill me to knock me off this course now.

"Oh, and Merrill? Lyra knew the whole time. She's on her way to meet me and my partner now, and we're going recruiting." Calliope smirked. "We now return you to your regularly scheduled meeting. Have a _wonderful_ day."

The projectors turned completely off. Berry sat shock still, unable to comprehend what Calliope had said. Project Mew was evil? The aliens _weren't_ evil and actually had a good, if unexplained, reason for what they were doing? There was a third option that wasn't die or kill the aliens?

"Shirogane," Ichigo said, her voice shaking, "Is Mew Calliope telling the truth? Are we really supposed to go to the aliens' planet and kill all of them?" Berry turned to look at her rival. Ichigo's red-brown eyes were wide, her expression horrified. Her feline ears were lowered, her tail twitching like mad.

"What else are we supposed to do?" Ryou replied. "They came here to commit genocide against humans. We have to make sure that once they leave they won't be able to come back, say, fifty years in the future and do this again. Besides, is killing them any worse than what _they_ did to _us_ when they first arrived? The first generation of Mews were flawed, functional but incomplete, and lots of civilians died in the first three years of this war. There are _thousands_ of children all over Japan whose parents were killed by the Cyniclons."

Ryou's voice dropped to a low rumble. "Five years ago, they got into the base. In an attempt to shut down this branch of Project Mew, they destroyed the labs and murdered my parents, the original Head and Coordinator. The only reason we are still in operation is because I knew enough about the project to keep it running. If anything, exterminating them as a species is kinder than what they have done on Earth."

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind," Lettuce whispered. The whole room turned to look at the green-haired Mew, who flushed.

"What?" Ryou asked.

"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind," Lettuce repeated, a little bit louder. "Revenge does nothing but hurt people. It doesn't solve problems. It doesn't make people happy. Maybe we should listen to Mew Calliope and try and find another—"

"No!" Ryou yelled. "There _is_ no other way. The aliens are completely evil, and nothing we say or do can change that or make working with them possible. Mew Lettuce, I am removing you from duty for a period of a week. You are forbidden to leave this level of the base, and all your tools will be confiscated until I return you to duty. You have one more infraction before I terminate you."

Lettuce burst into tears. Ryou's eyes softened fractionally.

"I don't mean to be cruel," he said, "But this is war. We can't afford the risk of letting you on the battlefield when your loyalties are wavering like this."

"If it were possible to cooperate with them, this fight would be long over," Zakuro said.

The lupine Mew stood quietly and left the room. Lettuce fled a second later, managing not to trip on the way out. Berry considered it a shame; the added humiliation would have been funny. Ichigo shot Ryou a particularly nasty glare and stormed out. Pudding and Mint exited quietly, not making eye contact with anyone. Keiichiro, evidently sensing the tension, hurried off to the lab to check on an experiment, leaving Berry and Ryou alone. She stared at him, curious rather than accusing.

"Is this really what we're supposed to do?" she asked.

"Yes. It's the only way we can be sure Earth will be safe from the aliens."

"Then I'll follow the mission through to the end," Berry said determinedly. After a brief pause, she added, "I'm a little worried that Ichigo might want to turn on the Project as well. While we were fighting today, one of the aliens kissed her. I think she might be sympathetic toward them, and if you push her she could defect."

"Really?" Ryou looked a bit surprised. "I'll keep an eye on her. Thank you for the warning, Berry. You're free to go now." As the blonde Mew left the room, he added, "And if she seems like she's going to defect, I'll place you as the Leader. Mint probably shares her ideals, and having someone like that replace Ichigo could ruin our team."

"Thank you, Ryou!" Berry exclaimed. She darted back into the room, planted a quick kiss on the Coordinator's cheek, and sprinted back out.

Dashing into her room, Berry shut her door and laughed. Finally! Ryou had realized her worth to the Mew Project, her loyalty. When Ichigo inevitably turned traitor—or rather, when Berry could set her up as a traitor—Berry would assume her true position as Leader of Tokyo Mew Mew. It was her right. It was her destiny.

* * *

Hundreds of thousands of miles away, Calliope, former Ace of Eastern Seaboard Mew, closed down the computer she'd used to hack the Earthnet video site Project Mew used for its livestream chats. She stepped back, eying it. Unlike her recorded message, this interruption had been a direct link to the various computers involved and she knew for a fact that Mew Bree, one of her former teammates, was capable of tracing the link back to this computer. And once they had that, the Project could tail her.

"Can you wipe my hard drive for me?" she asked, ears tilting towards her extraterrestrial companion, who had just finished zipping his own computer's carrying case closed.

"Are you sure?" he asked, sing-song accent heavy on the last word.

"Yep. Don't want the project tracing me through my computer. I'll replace the drive first chance we get."

"Alright," came the reply. A pale finger touched one port on the side of the computer, a spark leaping from fingertip to metal. The device made a sizzling sound, like how Calliope imagined a broken dream might sound as the hologram you'd created shattered and fizzled out. A long moment of silence passed.

"Are you sure we're doing the right thing?" she asked. Her partner shot her a sidelong look.

"Are you worried we've done something wrong, Calliope?" He pronounced her name very carefully, enunciating each syllable of her name with precision. Kal-lee-oh-pay.

"Maybe a little. I'm not having second thoughts, it's just…can we really do this?"

"I don't know. Nothing is certain. But we _are_ doing the right thing here. Sacrifices must be made, if we want to save both worlds. The Mews have sacrificed their trust in their creators. You have sacrificed your bond with your team." His pale eyes grew sad and distant. "I have sacrificed everything I have ever known. It's a lot, to be sure, but we are on the right course. I feel it."

Calliope nodded. "I trust you. We've chosen our course, so we have to see this through." Another pause. "One problem. How the hell are we supposed to find a three-hundred-million-year-old piece of alien technology when archaeologists haven't even found all the pharaoh's tombs in Egypt, which is a lot newer?"


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: So sorry for the wait, this chapter was a bear to write. I wrote at least five completely different versions and hated them all until this one, and it's the shortest chapter aside from the intro...not to mention the week-long timeskip right in the middle. Ugh.**

* * *

Ichigo called a team meeting—Mews only—in her room as soon as she could get Lettuce to calm down. The green Mew was near hysterical, and with good reason, considering that the person who served as an older brother had just threatened to kill her.

The feline Mew felt awful about the whole situation. Sure, she didn't like the aliens—_especially_ Kisshu—but that didn't mean she wanted to kill them all. Just having them leave would be enough for her. And, of course, Shirogane only made it worse by taking everything to extremes. He'd nearly broken Lettuce's poor, fragile heart, and the news had shaken her team to the core, leaving them weakened and vulnerable. To keep her team together Ichigo had to make sure they knew the one thing that really counted, their bonds with each other, were real and not going away any time soon. She wouldn't let them fall apart.

So, almost two hours after The Message, Mew Ichigo found herself sitting on her bed, surrounded by her team. Five sets of eyes—red, green, violet, blue, sienna—locked on her. She could feel the turmoil, the uncertainty in each gaze. The red-haired Mew took a deep breath.

"So what are we going to do, na no da?" Pudding asked. "Pudding doesn't want to hurt anyone, na no da."

"Stop being so immature," Berry snapped back. "They'll finish us off in a heartbeat if we show indecision about stopping them. They're the monsters here' we'd just be doing what we're supposed to do."

"Berry, shut up," Ichigo said. She turned her attention to the youngest Mew. "So what do you think, Pudding?"

"Pudding thinks we should do what Lettuce-no-nee-chan said and try something else, na no da. Hurting people is a bad thing, na no da."

Ichigo nodded. "Lettuce, what kind of 'something else' do you want to try?"

"I-I think we don't know enough about what's going on. I think we should talk to them and find out why they're attacking Earth in the first place, and see if there's another solution that doesn't need everyone on one side to die."

"Impractical," Zakuro said. "They've been our enemies longer than we've been alive. They wouldn't talk to us."

"Nee, Minto-chan," Ichigo asked. "What do you think?"

"I really don't know," the lorikeet Mew said. "Onee-sama is probably right in that they wouldn't talk to us, and I don't think we could stop fighting long enough to actually say anything even if they were willing to talk."

Ichigo's eyes lit up. "That's it! If we can't stop fighting to talk, then we'll have to try talking without starting a fight first!"

"And how are we going to do that?" Mint asked, arching one blue eyebrow.

"We'll sneak out and get their attention or something, na no da!" Pudding cheered.

"Yep," Ichigo said. "Here's the plan: we'll sneak out tonight and try to get their attention. If we fail, no big deal, we'll just go back inside; but if we succeed we can talk without fighting. Lettuce, Shirogane's got your EMP castanets, right?"

"Yes," Lettuce said, looking down. Ichigo realized it was pretty insensitive of her to remind her Techno that she'd been grounded, but she was on a roll with this idea.

"He's probably upgrading it to set off higher-level EMPs, since last time they didn't work so good. So what we'll do is this: Pudding will steal Lettuce's castanets back, and once we have their attention Lettuce will set off an EMP that will knock out all their tech, including whatever it is they use to teleport. That way, they're stuck and they _have_ to talk."

"Pretty smart, for once," Mint said.

"Hn," said Zakuro.

"Pudding thinks it's a great idea, na no da!" Pudding chirped.

"I think it's a good idea, too," said Lettuce.

"You're a moron," Berry scoffed. "And you're a traitor to humanity. There's no way that will work, and I'll laugh when you all die doing stupid things just because Ichigo told you to." The blonde stood and stormed out, tail twitching furiously. The remaining Mews watched her go, stunned.

Ichigo groaned internally. There was no way her team would be able to remain fully intact—Berry had always been the weakest link, the most likely to turn on the others, and this was giving her the perfect opportunity. Whether she would turn on the battlefield or in the base was anyone's guess, though. Ichigo turned back to her team.

"Change of plans," she said.

* * *

Shirogane's trust in Mew Berry was waning. Nearly a week had passed since The Incident, nearly a week since his Ace had brought him word that the rest of the team was planning to sneak out and meet with the aliens. But, while he had increased security levels on almost everything Berry mentioned, nothing happened. The Mews failed to act, though the aliens didn't. Every day they would organize some sort of attack, ranging well outside the Tokyo city limits to wreak havoc on surrounding towns. And with the team short a member, the aliens had more time and larger opportunities to cause civilian casualties and the Mews came back more beaten up and worn out than ever. All in all, Shirogane was beginning to regret pulling Lettuce out for the week. Much as he would like her to finish her punishment, he wanted his team to survive and to complete the Project's initial goal, at least.

His hands closed around the porpoise Mew's upgraded castanets. He sighed deeply and raised his head, making eye contact with Keiichiro.

"This is going to be a mistake, isn't it," he said. Not a question, exactly, but Keiichiro replied anyway.

"If you think returning Mew Lettuce's belongings would be a mistake, then don't do it."

Shirogane shrugged. "I'll have to give them back eventually," he said, retrieving the bag containing all of Lettuce's tools and supplies and placing the EMP castanets on top.

* * *

From her doorway, Zakuro watched Shirogane walk up to Lettuce's door and knock, then take a step back and stand there, bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet. The barest trace of a smile flickered across the lupine Mew's face. Ichigo was right after all—she hadn't realized the younger Mew had been so skilled at reading people. For once, one of Ichigo's plans would work.

She rapped lightly on the wall her room shared with Ichigo's, three short, sharp knocks she knew the wildcat Mew would hear. Almost immediately, Ichigo responded with a salvo of quiet knocks in a repeating pattern. It took two run-throughs for Zakuro to get the message.

_S return confirmed stop initiate phs 2 affirmation stop._ All in Morse code.

Zakuro knocked back. _Initiate phs 2 stop confirm others ready stop._

_Affirmative stop._ The violet-eyed Mew nodded. Now all they needed was for the aliens to do their thing, and they could put the plan into action.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Ah! Sorry for the slow update, this chapter was a bit tricky and my grandmother died while I was writing it, so I had to take some time off for that. Anyway...the first of the OCs gets a little teaser at the end of this chapter, and more show up next time around!**

* * *

They didn't have long to wait. Maybe thirty minutes after Mint got the signal that Lettuce had her castanets back, the alarm went off. The aliens were outside Tokyo again, perhaps ten or fifteen kilometers away. Not far at all for a Mew, and if they hurried they could make it before the aliens could do any real damage. She suited up as quickly as possible, grabbing her bow and arrows on her way out the door.

The group fell in rather quickly, pounding up the stairs, across the floor of the abandoned café, and out into a thunderstorm. Wind-lashed tree branches whipped the air, sheets of rain falling nearly horizontal. The Mews were soaked to the skin in seconds. Mint grumbled irritably. Not only was she wet, the storm's ferocity would keep her largely grounded.

"Come on!" Ichigo said, shouting to be heard over the crash of thunder. A flash of lightning followed a second later. In that brief low, Mint saw the expressions of determination on the others' faces.

The group set off at a run, through the wooded area around the base and out onto the old cement roadway, long since abandoned due to the convenience of mass transit. The road itself, however, had lingered more than half a century and was a good route for the Mews to use. Taking the tram usually led to passengers panicking about an attack on the car they were riding in and was usually slower than just running.

Twenty minutes. That's all the time it took for the Mews to reach the site of the alien incursion. Just before they arrived, Mint took to the air and did a brief recon mission, as she had the last few times the aliens had attacked a town. She couldn't see the aliens themselves, but the chimaera were obvious enough as they trashed the town. Three of the new, unusually large ones and three of the normal-sized chimaera. Mint could only hope the residents had gotten out or hidden in basements. It was nothing the Mews hadn't been handling for the last week, and short a member too. She turned and dove back towards the group.

And then something cannonballed out of nowhere, landing in the center of her back directly between her wings and driving her toward a bone-shattering impact with the unyielding ground below.

* * *

Kisshu and the others had been concealed in the town for twenty-three minutes, planning their strategy. While the past week of missions had been fairly serious attempts to finish the Mews—why waste the time and energy it took to make a chimaera anima if you weren't going to use it properly?—they were also, in part, reconnaissance. And Pai, resident strategist, had set up their game plan.

They would wait for the blue Mew to make her usual pre-battle flight and take her out then and there. The others, uninformed and worried, would run right into the carefully placed chimaera and Taruto's secret weapons. Kisshu would seek out Mew Ichigo, and as the in-combat leader of his team, would finish her himself. It was only right he did so, the only way he could provide her an honorable death. In a warrior culture, an honorable death was the last gift one could give a foe—and he would be there with her, holding her in his arms as her lifeblood soaked his clothes and the earth beneath them. Little as he liked the idea, better to provide her with a death worthy of such a proud warrior rather than the ignoble one his people had planned for the rest of her race.

And so he waited, crouched on a roof, for nearly half an Earth-hour, until the bluebird Mew flew over. Until a flash of blue feathers showed through the storm-lashed clouds. Then, drawing on his power, Kisshu reached out with threads of energy to touch on the fabric of space-time. He 'felt' the strands of it slide across his consciousness, reaching for the point he wanted, and 'pinching' it, bridging the gap between his place on the fabric of space-time and a place five feet up from Mew Mint.

Releasing the energy it would take to keep him aloft, Kisshu 'leapt' across the bridge he'd created, plummeting down five feet and landing elbow-first between Mint's wings. He heard something _pop_, saw her wings jerk up and back and, through her bodysuit, saw her shoulderblades snap back into a more human position. They fell, twisting and tangling in midair so Mint only got out from under him and her wings open moments before she would've hit the ground.

They spun apart, Mint's bow landing on the ground between them. The rain whipped into Kisshu's eyes, stinging, and he closed his second eyelid to keep it out. His vision cleared in time for him to barely dodge Mint as she rushed him with her knives. The Mew careened past, attempting to parkour off a tree for a second run, and jumped straight into the first of Taruto's traps. The instant her boot met the bark, vines swooped down and entangled her.

"What on Earth?!" Mint yelped.

"Not so much 'on Earth'," Kisshu said, almost mockingly. He pushed off, lifting back into the air to hover at arm's length. "One of my partners can control electrical impulses in plants—y'know, manipulate their movements and growth." A predatory grin crossed his face. "Have fun getting eaten alive—"

A bolt of plasma whizzed past Kisshu's left ear, searing a hole through the wall of a building. Kisshu turned, coming face-to-face with Mew Zakuro. The wolf Mew had her gun aimed directly at his head.

"Let. Mint. Alone," she growled, ears tilting aggressively.

"Onee-sama, look out! The vines!" Mint's warning was a second too late, the vines grapping Zakuro and yanking her airborne. The wolf Mew was slammed against the side of the building and went limp. "Onee-sama!"

Kisshu flew off, leaving the Mews to their fate. Either Taruto's vines would absorb the Mews to compensate for the loss of energy from moving around, or the chimaera would find them and eat them. Either way, he needed to find Mew Ichigo before she stumbled into a trap. All in all, easier done than said. He just had to follow the trail of chaos in the wake of her fights. The shattered tree limbs, crushed sheds and ruined gardens led straight to the feline Mew, who was right in the midst of a fight with one of the mega-chimaera.

Kisshu watched and, if he hadn't seen her in battle a thousand times before, he would have been awed. As it was, he gazed intently at her lithe, graceful form, admiring her in what would be her last victory. She was stunning, pure grace and speed. He watched her all but run up the wall of a house and use it to launch herself onto the chimaera from above. Her knives flashed, stabbing at its thick scales. Kisshu knew he should be attacking her while she was distracted, but he couldn't bring himself to interrupt the beauty and flow of the fight.

It wasn't long before Mew Ichigo's knife slammed through the chimaera's eye and into its brain, killing it instantly. As the hulking reptilian thing collapsed, Kisshu 'leapt' across the intervening space to hover behind her.

"Nice job, Koneko-chan," he said affectionately. Ichigo whirled to face him, ears going down and back aggressively. He smiled. She glowered back. That was his kitten, alright—fiery and beautiful, with that red hair and those fierce eyes.

"Kisshu," she growled. "What the hell are you people doing to my teammates? I can't find them anywhere."

Kisshu smirked. "Oh, kitten. I can't tell you _now_… but I will if you beat me."

The feline Mew lunged, and Kisshu sprang aside. That began a dangerous game of tag, with Ichigo 'it' and Kisshu dodging her flashing knives. While his people were suited almost equally to walking and levitating, he used the two simultaneously to take huge, bounding steps back away from his attacker and steadily luring her into the town's park. He led the chase in amongst the trees, heading for the deeper parts and away from Taruto's traps.

And then he ducked behind a tree and 'leapt' behind Ichigo, slamming her knives out of her hands and, as she spun to face him, knocking her to the ground. Ichigo yowled, startled, and immediately rammed her knee into his groin. Kisshu was glad Pai had modified the standard bodysuit to better protect the more…sensitive parts of his anatomy. He moved to straddle her hips, using his weight to pin her to the ground.

"Sorry, Ichigo." He marveled at the startled look on her face. It was a rare occasion that Kisshu called Ichigo by name, so he knew that she knew that something serious was up. "I have to do this. The Council's endgame begins now—Tokyo Resistance isn't the only plan being put into action, and believe me, you'll suffer less if I kill you now." He leaned in, lips almost touching the delicate shell of one feline ear. "Nobody else can touch you, Ichigo. You're _mine_."

Her red-brown eyes narrowed angrily. "Get _off_ me, Kisshu! I won't give in so easily!" The Mew flailed, struggling to get him off, but Kisshu didn't budge. He 'pulled' with his mind, one sai materializing in his hand.

"It's easier this way, Koneko-chan," he said, pinning her left wrist with one knee and gripping her right forearm fiercely. He rested the edge of his sai against the bared skin of her wrist. "You'll just go to sleep, and I'll be right here with you the whole time. It won't even hurt."

"No!" But she knew better than to struggle. One wrong move, and the almost razor-sharp blade would slice Ichigo's wrist open, severing muscle, tendons, veins and arteries—not that not moving wouldn't have the same result. "Kisshu, please, it doesn't have to be like this! Maybe we can work some kind of deal—"

"There's no deal your kind could make us. If I—if we don't make this planet safe for our people back home, there won't be anyone left to fight for. Humans aren't the most compassionate beings in the galaxy, and if you knew our problem you would turn your backs. I'm sorry it has to end this way between us, but dying by my hands is better than the fate the Council has planned for your species. Kitten…" Kisshu took a deep breath, arm tensing to add just enough pressure to his sai to cut Ichigo's wrist, when he heard soft bootsteps on the ground behind him.

_"Release the Mew at once, soldier."_ Kisshu froze. The voice was eerily familiar, but what got his attention was the language used—his mother tongue.

The storm overhead rumbled ominously. Kisshu smelled ozone, and a second later a bolt of lightning struck the tree branch right over his head. The limb struck the ground directly beside him and Ichigo, charred and smoldering.

_"Release the Mew now. That was a warning. The next one does not miss."_

* * *

**A/N: *sweatdrops* Close call there, eh? But who is Ichigo's mysterious ally, and what is their goal? Will she and the other Tokyo Mews survive? Aha, I just love a good cliffhanger...**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Aha! Got it done, and pretty quickly this time too. Also, new characters incoming!**

* * *

Ichigo craned her neck, attempting to peer over Kisshu's shoulder at whatever he had turned his head to look at. The lighting had scared her almost half to death, but what set her fur on edge was the person—at least, she assumed it was a person—who had…spoken?... just before it hit. It was a human-sounding voice, but there were no words, just notes, rhythms and pitches, each enunciated on a different tone. But all of it had sounded angry: a brisk, harsh trill, followed by rapidly descending thirds and a sharp, high whoop at the end of the second repetition.

Kisshu responded in kind. A low, bassy rumble, followed by three slightly higher pitched _churrs_ and a birdlike chirp. The second voice—higher pitched than Kisshu's, Ichigo noticed—replied with an irritated-sounding hum. Seconds later, Kisshu had leapt off of her and was fleeing on foot.

The newcomer followed in a whirl of blue fabric and black hair, jumping over Ichigo's prone form to pursue the fleeing Cyniclon. As she sat up, she caught a good look at the newcomer. Long, black hair in a ponytail, a blue trench coat of some sort, and the unmistakable Cyniclon ears. Ichigo's jaw dropped. _What's an alien doing attacking other aliens?_

Ichigo rolled to all fours, balancing in the mud on her fingertips and the balls of her feet, tail swishing behind her. She grabbed her knives and sprang upright, tensed and listening for the slightest sound. Nothing but the wind and rain lashing at the trees and her own ragged breathing. The Mew stood, rubbing her wrist. She could still feel the icy touch of Kisshu's sai against her bare skin, and every nerve tingled in expectation of his return to finish what he'd started.

Then, unexpectedly, the wind carried a scent to her nose—an unwelcomely familiar one. Blood, accompanied by the sound of someone screaming.

Ichigo turned and ran towards what she assumed was a fight, keeping alert for the aliens the whole time. A vine lashed for her, and she ducked under it just in time. It swung back for a second pass. Ichigo dodged again—but not quite fast enough. The vine wrapped around her ankle, yanking her to the ground before pulling her up into the air. Ichigo twisted, slashing at the vine with her smaller knife, growling with frustration as she missed again and again. Then she felt resistance, and her knife slashed through the vine. She dropped to the ground, the length of vine around her ankle uncoiling limply. The severed end flailed in the air, straining to reach her. She stared at it, then looked around.

All of the trees were draped with unnatural lengths of vine, and every vine was stirring, the ends turning to aim at her. A trail of cold sweat trickled down Ichigo's back. She'd never seen anything like it before. It was eerie, unnatural…unearthly. The only cause she could think of were the aliens, but the energy required for this had to be enormous—

A vine coiled around her knee as someone laughed behind her. "Looks like I caught an old hag!"

"You brat!" Ichigo retorted, twisting to face Taruto. The alien was hanging upside down in midair, russet pigtails hanging and grinning like a fiend.

"Hey, granny!"

"Midget!"

"Witch!"

"Put me down!"

"No way! I'm not gonna risk letting you down even after Pai and Kisshu handle the newcomers—"

"Somebody say something 'bout us?" a girl asked casually. Ichigo and Taruto both turned to face the speaker, who stood casually unnoticed under a nearby tree.

The girl was soaked from the rain, hooded jacket drenched and hanging heavily from her slim frame. She was armed to the teeth, as evidenced by the machetes in a cross-sheath on her back, a pair of extra knives in addition to the standard-issue Project knives, and the handguns on her belt. Her auburn hair clung to the sides of her head, making her foxy ears look even bigger. Mismatched eyes blazed out from underneath white-tipped bangs. She smirked, exposing elongated canines.

"Who the hell are you?!" Taruto yelped, flipping back upright. Ichigo noted the look of mild panic on his face.

"Lyra Vixen," the fox Mew replied. "And I'm here to keep you distracted until my partner can get into position to knock you out."

Half a second after she finished speaking, a pebble the size of the end of Ichigo's thumb struck Taruto in the back of the head. The alien dropped out of the air, but before he could hit the ground a black-and-grey blur zipped out of the trees and caught him. The blur resolved into an unfamiliar Cyniclon, who touched down right beside Lyra and deposited Taruto at the base of the tree. He shot Ichigo a hard, wary look and moved half a step closer to Lyra, golden eyes flashing.

Ichigo took the opportunity to cut the vines holding her and drop to the ground, twisting midair to land on her feet. She stood absolutely still, eyes locked with the newcomer's. Neither of them moved a muscle…that is, until someone yelled something incomprehensible somewhere nearby. Lyra's ears twitched, and her expression shifted almost to excitement.

"C'mon, Hell," she said, elbowing the unfamiliar Cyniclon in the side. "That's Calli's signal, we gotta go." He nodded, tilting his head just enough that long, shaggy bangs obscured his eyes, before darting after her. Ichigo followed after a moment's hesitation. It didn't take long to catch up with Lyra, who shot her a sharp azure look out of the corner of her right eye.

"Mew Ichigo, right? Leader of Tokyo Mew Mew?"

"Yes," Ichigo replied, switching to English. "Have you seen my teammates?"

"Yep," said Lyra, popping the 'p'. "One of your alien buddies controls plants, hey? He had 'em all tied up in vines, and me and Hell here had to cut some of them down. He wishes Calli would 'a let him handle the chimaera instead, right Hellebore?" The Cyniclon reached over and tugged at her left ear, eliciting an irritated yelp.

"Are they alright?" Ichigo asked, trying to steer the conversation back on topic.

"Pissed off, especially Mew Zakuro, but they're fine."

At that, the three burst out of the park and onto the main street of the town. In the middle of a plaza at what Ichigo knew had been the town center, a huge fight was going down between the Tokyo Mews, the remaining chimaera, and Pai and Kisshu. As usual, Lettuce and Pai duked it out a little way away from the others; while Mint and Zakuro tag-teamed Kisshu. Berry and Pudding fended off the remaining smaller chimaera. But Calliope and Ichigo's mysterious rescuer were nowhere to be seen.

Lyra whooped. "Let's do this!" She unsheathed her machetes, and Ichigo's eyes widened as the edges began glowing red-hot. The fox Mew leapt into battle, tail flying behind her as she hurled herself at the nearest chimaera. Hellebore followed a second later, pulling twin swords from nowhere and darting into the fight. Ichigo paused, watching the fight to figure out where she was needed—and then froze, noticing a flash of movement atop a nearby roof.

The thing moved again, and through the sheeting rain Ichigo recognized her rescuer. He—she assumed it was a he by the breadth of his shoulders—was standing on the ridge of the roof, arms folded. A second person stood with him, the gigantic black wings rendering her instantly recognizable as Calliope.

The blonde hurled herself off the roof, wings snapping open and pulling her aloft. Ichigo watched her wheel sharply in midair, pulling up with her right arm, and her partner was swung off the roof in a long arc aimed for the nearest mega-chimaera. Ichigo initially thought this was some new flight technique, but then a fine, glittering strand of _something_ connecting Calliope and the blue-clad Cyniclon caught her eye and she realized he was using the bat Mew as the pivot point on a swing of some sort.

Thunder roared, and in almost the same instant a bolt of lightning arced down from the sky towards the two. Calliope pulled her wings in, dropping past her companion like a stone. He too began to fall, aiming straight for the gigantic chimaera—but not fast enough to avoid the lightning. He was struck, tumbling from the sky—and slammed into the base of the chimaera's skull, wielding a sword Ichigo hadn't even seen him summon. The electricity ripped through the chimaera, and down it went. The Cyniclon landed next to it, bouncing once to dispel his extra momentum. Ichigo turned away to keep her insides from coming outside as the chimaera's had done. Then, ignoring the stink and steam, she pulled her knives and raced into the fight.

She somehow ended up fighting beside Calliope. The blonde ducked under the oncoming chimaera, laser sword swinging in a low arc. Ichigo, on her right side, had to jump the blade to avoid having her legs cut off at the knees.

"Watch it!" Ichigo yelped.

"Sorry, didn't see you there," Calliope replied. Abruptly, she flipped her sword back into its holster on her belt and tackled Ichigo into the mud. A second later, a burst of electricity shot over their heads and hit the chimaera they'd been fighting. "Nice shot, Lor!"

"It's nothing," the blue-clad Cyniclon said, skidding to a stop and reaching down to help them up. Calliope flipped back to her feet on her own, but Ichigo accepted the assistance. Her eyes met those of her rescuer, and she froze, struck by the sheer unnaturalness of them. They glowed faintly, as if lit from within, and were a bright, eerie blue. Ichigo shuddered, and he released her forearm and turned away to help Lyra with one of the remaining chimaera.

Ichigo paused to catch her breath, staring at the remains of the plaza. The bricks had, for the most part, been torn up by the chimaeras' claws, and several buildings had been smashed. Ichigo could only hope the people had taken shelter in their basements.

Mint fired an arrow through the head of one of the remaining chimaera, killing it instantly. Zakuro kept Kisshu occupied, her whip flickering around him in a dazzling array of purple energy. Lettuce had Pai backed against a nearby building. Taruto had re-entered the fight while she'd been distracted, and Pudding was fighting him. Berry, Lyra, Hellebore, and the other newcomer were finishing off the last of the chimaera as she watched. It collapsed, the edges of the wound that killed it searing shut from the heat of Lyra's machetes. The fight stopped dead as the remaining combatants froze. Then, Calliope spoke up.

"Okay, now that we're done with the mindless mutant animals, can we calm down and have a conversation like sane, civilized people? 'Cuz I don't feel like killing anyone today."

* * *

**A/N: A quick note on the aliens' language: since in canon it's all translated for the viewers, I had nothing to go on for a basis; and rather than base it on a human language or have it be an alphabet cipher for English, I went with something a little 'out there' both to avoid offending people and make them seem a bit more...alien.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: ...I think I lied when I said faster updates were coming. Wait, ****_did_**** I say faster updates were coming? I think I'm losing my mind.**

**Anyway, before I get started I would like to respond to a guest review I moderated. To whoever left that, I'm glad for the attention, but I can't accept your Mew. There are two reasons for this: **

**1) Your formatting was incorrect. If you had or were willing to leave a non-guest review, I could PM you for more information, but I can't. In addition, I have an OC PROFILE FORMAT on my profile page. It's there for a reason.**

**2) In your profile, you listed 'dragon' as the Mew's DNA animal. Much as I love fantasy, I'm writing sci-fi, so no dragons. If you'd said Komodo dragon or specified two animals that would give your character dragonlike aspects and didn't mind the drawbacks of a two-animal character, that would be fine, but you said 'dragon'.**

**Sorry about the Author Rant, but it had to be done. Please, use the OC format on my page. It makes things a heck of a lot easier.**

* * *

Zakuro sprang backwards, away from Kisshu and towards Mint, her keen violet eyes darting back and forth as she analyzed the situation. The main threat—the chimaera—had been neutralized, though not according to Phase Two of the plan the Mews had concocted. The aliens weren't fighting at the moment, and if Ichigo wanted to talk there would be no better time. That is, if it weren't for the wild cards in the situation: the newcomers.

The fox Mew—Lyra, she supposed—stood close to one of the unfamiliar Cyniclons, who hung almost protectively by her right side, gold eyes flashing death at anyone who looked directly at them. The second alien stood almost a meter away from the two, his unnaturally blue eyes darting as though assessing the others for signs of hostility. Something silvery shimmered and twisted at his right wrist, even though his left hand was nowhere near it. Calliope stood several meters away, arms folded over her chest. She looked, Zakuro thought, confident. Perhaps overconfident, since if the Mews or the aliens decided to attack her team she would have a hard time fending them off.

"And why would we be interested in conversing 'like sane, civilized people'?" Pai said. Lettuce took a few steps away from him, and the alien turned to face the bat Mew.

"Do you _want_ to watch everyone on your home planet die when you can't beat the Project?" She grinned at the stunned look on Pai's face. "Yeah. I know all about the situation, even your side of it. And me and Lorem here—" she gestured to the blue-clad Cyniclon "—have a plan that lets everyone come out alive, not just one side or the other."

"And how do I know this 'plan' will work?"

"You don't," Lorem interjected. "I don't, either. But attempting something that may or may not work is better than charging headlong into certain death."

Pai snorted. "Idealists," he said, shaking his head slowly.

"Hey," Calliope said warningly. Her red eye flashed. "Don't diss the idealism, especially when it's trying to save your backside."

"Hmph," Pai scoffed.

"Maybe we should listen to what she's got to say," Kisshu suggested. Zakuro looked at him, startled.

"And this after you tried to kill me just a few minutes ago," said Ichigo.

"I thought there wasn't a way out of it then, and you never know, I might still do it."

"Ok, enough flirting," Calliope said. "You wanna talk business, we'll talk. You wanna be cute with each other, do it on your own time."

"Hey!" the two protested simultaneously. Calliope ignored them and steamrolled right ahead, spreading her wings as if preparing for flight. "We've got a safe house set up not too far from here, and Lor got the tech stuff set up to keep people out. We can talk there."

Lorem shot her a look. "What, you are going to make me walk with them by myself? You _know _Hellebore will just 'leap' with Lyra the moment you give him an opportunity."

"Oh, please. I'm just shakin' the raindrops off my wings."

"Now who's flirting?" Lyra joked.

Ichigo burst out laughing. Kisshu joined her a second later, and before Zakuro really knew what was going on the tension lay in melting shards on the ground as everyone except Pai and Berry joined in. The wolf Mew chuckled a little herself, tail swishing from side to side.

* * *

Berry hung at the back of the group, watching everyone with various degrees of suspicion. She didn't really trust her teammates anymore, since they were turning out to be traitors after all—she'd warned Ryou about this!—didn't trust the newcomers at all since they were either traitors or the enemy, and she wouldn't trust _the enemy_ if you paid her everything in the national budget. At least the groups separated out, making it easier for her to keep an eye on the threats.

She reviewed her impromptu plan in her head, adjusting the finer aspects of it. She would have to watch this meeting, and she would have to remember everything. She would keep her head down, would resist the urge to scream at them how wrong they all were, resist grabbing her staff to smash the aliens' heads in and forcing the traitors into compliance. And then, like a good, loyal Mew, Berry would report everything she had heard to Ryou.

The most disturbing thing about the situation, though, was how close the traitors were to their enemy 'allies'. The fox Mew, Lyra, practically hung off the gold-eyed Cyniclon like a barnacle on a rock—and the second Calliope turned her back, the two vanished for places unknown. Calliope herself walked side-by-side with the other one, neither of them speaking with the other, but Berry could practically see the connection. And Ichigo! Rather than doing what she was supposed to and killing the aliens, walked close enough to that green-haired monster that at any given moment she could reach out and touch him. And the other Mews just went along with it! They didn't protest their Leader's actions, didn't disobey her order and follow their mission—it was disgraceful.

It was maybe a five minute walk to the 'safe house', and during that time the rain actually let up and allowed a peek of the setting sun through the clouds. The house itself looked like an ordinary house in the suburbs, nothing to set it apart from innumerable identical buildings except that the small front yard hadn't been mowed recently and all the windows were boarded up—except one in the back, from which the boards had been removed. And, judging by the way it was propped open by a stick, was probably the entrance. Calliope dropped the stick on the sill and, shaking her wings off before folding them flat against her back, climbed through. She held the window open.

"Come on, you guys. We don't have all day, and I don't want the neighbors to get too curious," she said. Ichigo shrugged and, due to her shorter height, was forced to haul herself up onto the windowsill.

Mint groaned. "That's going to be irritating." In response, Zakuro knelt in front of the window and cupped her hands as a step for the lorikeet Mew to use. Mint flashed the older Mew a quick smile.

Berry waited until everyone else—except the freaky blue-eyed alien, who insisted on going last—had gone through the window before hopping up herself. She smirked, glad that she would be less clumsy and undignified at getting through the window than Ichigo thanks to her rabbit genes. She jumped lightly onto the windowsill and slid inside, landing neatly in the dimly lit room. The alien followed a second behind her and closed the window. She heard something click behind her and whirled around to find that he'd locked it. Cold fear trailed down her spine.

"You…locked us in," she said slowly.

"I would rather _you_," he eyed her suspiciously, "remained here. I don't trust you not to sneak out to get a head start back to your base to tell your boss everything."

Berry gulped. How had he figured her out so quickly, with only a few minutes of observation? She shivered and took a step back, chilled by those suddenly glacial eyes. Lorem stepped past her, trench coat rustling as it brushed against her leg. Berry stood still, frozen with fear, before following a second later.

In the next room—the former living room, judging by the dusty sofa and chairs—the rest of the group had congregated. Calliope was seated backwards on one of the chairs, straddling the back with her arms resting on the top. Ichigo, Zakuro, and Lettuce had claimed the main part of the sofa, while Mint sat on one arm and Pudding perched on the back, her feet dangling between Ichigo and Zakuro. Hellebore had claimed one of the other chairs, and Lyra was seated on his lap with her head tucked under his chin. Pai had claimed the third chair, with Taruto sitting on the arm of _that_. Kisshu hovered cross-legged nearby, arms crossed casually behind his head. Lorem stood quietly beside Calliope, blue eyes studying the room. Berry took a seat on the free arm of the sofa.

"So," Calliope said. "Before I say anything, I want a promise that nobody's going to go and spill to the people in charge, 'cause they'll try to stop us and if they succeed everyone dies."

"What's with the 'everyone dies' thing?" Berry asked. "I know if we lose the aliens will kill everyone and if we win we kill the aliens, but why do we care what happens to them? They're evil freaks trying to kill us all!" She immediately gave herself a mental slap upside the head. There went the 'resist the urge to tell them they're wrong' part of the plan.

"They're not evil," Lyra protested. "If you get to know them, some of them are really nice!"

"Some of us are just mean, though," Hellebore corrected, and tugged on Lyra's ear. She smacked playfully at his hand. Calliope just rolled her eyes.

"They're not evil, just desperate. You'd act the same way if you were in their situation…Lor, you wanna tell 'em? It's not really my story…"

Lorem nodded. "Thank you," he said, then turned his attention to the Mews. "To put it simply, even without the threat of Project Mew, our people are on the verge of extinction. The planet we currently inhabit is becoming increasingly unlivable, even having taken the extreme precaution of moving the population underground, and if nothing is done we will die out within the next generation. We had one option: relocate to a more hospitable planet."

"Why choose Earth?" Zakuro asked.

"It's close, and we lack the resources to travel much farther. It's Earth or nothing, according to the Council," Pai said.

"Not anymore!" Calliope declared. "Me and Lor figured out a solution that, if we can find the thinger—"

"Terraformer," Lorem corrected.

"Yeah, the thinger. We've got a picture—"

"A set of blueprints."

"—A _blueprint-thingy_ on Lorem's computer, so we know what the chumpey looks like, and if we can't find it we'll need to build one. And then all we have to do is steal some of that Aqua Vitae stuff and convince everyone in charge to just shut the hell up and listen to us and—"

"Hang on a second," Ichigo cut in. "What did you say?"

"Convince everyone to shut up and listen?"

"No. The other thing."

"Build a new terraformer-thing?"

"No, the _other_ other thing."

"Steal a power source?"

"You realize that's a crime, right?"

"Yeah, and? I'm probably accused of hacking a government database, stealing sensitive documents, theft of government property, and treason from humanity. Lyra's guilty of the last two, and Lor and Hell are, like, Public Enemy Number One or something. None of us give a damn anymore. We just don't want one side or the other to be killed off. It's not right."

"What Calliope means is that we're already outside the bounds of both human and Cyniclon law," said Lorem. "We'll do whatever it takes to save both sides." He shot Calliope a look out of the corner of his eye, and Berry wished she knew how to interpret it. The bat Mew nodded subtly.

Kisshu dropped out of his hover, landing lightly on the floor. "You're crazy," he said. "But it might work. We've been fighting a war for ten years with no progress, and if we work with you instead of the Council, there's a chance."

"It's an absolutely foolish endeavor," Pai said. "And the likelihood of this terraformer still being in existence after three hundred million years is—'

"Why would Cyniclon technology be on Earth in the first place?" Lettuce asked suddenly.

Everything went dead silent for exactly twelve seconds. Then Lorem spoke.

"Our species actually evolved here on Earth, but was forced off due to…extenuating circumstances. That's why our technology is here." Turning to Pai, he added, "Admittedly, it's highly unlikely that any of our technology that was left on Earth is in one piece and accessible, much less functional. Nevertheless, you know how well our ancestors built things. Didn't we come back to Earth in the crafts our people originally left in, with only maintenance repairs in the years since they were built? It's possible there's still a potentially-functional terraformer in existence on Earth, we just need to locate it."

"'Potentially functional' is the key phrase. You may be part of _that_ project, but you don't know everything, and you are a fool for playing along with that human's idiotic idea." Pai stood and glared daggers at everyone in the room. "This plan of yours is more likely to get both sides killed than save them. I will not participate in such foolishness, and anyone with a shred of common sense will agree with me." His point made, Pai left in typical Cyniclon fashion. That is, he teleported before Calliope could stand up to punch him in the face.

"…That went well," Lyra said, tone laced with sarcasm.

"Agreed," said Hellebore. Calliope glared daggers at the place Pai had just vacated.

"Pai's just an old doubter," Taruto said, dropping into the seat of the chair. "But I wanna help. Maybe it'll be more fun than bothering the old hags all the time."

"Who are you calling an old hag, midget?!" Ichigo snapped.

"Who else, grandma?!"

"Calm down," Zakuro growled. Both Ichigo and Taruto immediately went quiet.

Kisshu shrugged. "Not sure if it'll work, but…" his gaze wandered to Ichigo "…a crazy plan is better than having to kill my Koneko-chan. Thing is, this is one of the planned sites for Project Deep Blue, and if Pai tells our superiors, we'll be in serious trouble. We could get relocated to different branches."

Unexpectedly, Lorem smiled. "That may be a blessing in disguise. With the two of you in different locations, we'll have more insiders on both sides and more potential help if you can convince anyone else to see things our way."

"What's 'Project Deep Blue'?" Ichigo asked.

"Essentially, it's a counter to Project Mew. Instead of the original plan, which was to target all areas of high population density and move out from there, the Council has set up a contingency plan, which is intended to create a powerful disturbance in Earth's electromagnetic field, reversing the planet's polarization and screwing up the climate, orientation, and rotation of the Earth badly enough that humanity would be too busy struggling to survive to fend us off," Lorem said. "Before I left the main ship, I threw a wrench in Project Deep Blue's planning, so we're in a race to find the terraformer before the project can recover."

Berry noticed Calliope shooting Lorem an odd look, almost like she wanted to say something but was holding back.

"So what do we have to do?" Zakuro asked.

"Japan is one of the biggest seismic zones on the planet. If they get access to anywhere they could disrupt a fault line or something, we're just as screwed as if they get the Poles. Keep 'em out at all costs," Calliope said.

"And what will you be doing?" Berry challenged.

"Finding the terraformer, or finding someone who can build a new one," Hellebore said. His golden eyes narrowed. "Don't you listen?" Berry shrank back away from him—and fell off the arm of the couch. Ichigo snickered. Berry's ear twitched irritably. _B*tch._

"Anyway, we probably ought to let you go back to your base before your Coordinator gets too worried," Lorem said. "The best of luck to you."

"You too," Ichigo said, standing up. The other Mews followed her lead, and Lorem led the way back into the window room—which had probably been the dining room at some point—to unlock the window for them.

The second the Mews made it back out onto the abandoned road, Berry smirked.

_Time to tell Ryou. I can't let the aliens get away with killing everyone, but Calliope and her fellow traitors have to be stopped before their weakness lets the aliens win._

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the infodump. Anyway, I'll probably end up splitting this into several shorter stories, just to cut down a bit on the length in my word document-63 pages and 27,712 words, not counting Author's Notes. On this, I'll do one epilogue chapter just to set up the transition, and then I'll post the next part. Buckle up, folks-we're going global!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Okay, we're only on chapter 14 and nowhere near the end, so I'm going to split this story into two parts, possibly three depending on how long the rest is. This'll be the last chapter for Part One, and I'm getting started on Part Two now.  
Thanks to the people who submitted Mews for me: iamgoku, Amu Tsukiyomi, XxHellShadowXx, LittleMissWonderlannd, Raven-Geek, wolfwingsbrenna, and brightcloud0915.  
Special thanks to the wonderful Rafel666, for her wonderful OCs and support-and for being there to bounce ideas off when I needed it. I owe it all-or at least a good chunk of it-to you.**

**Thank you all for reading; I'll see you in the next installment of Project Mew: Racing Light!**

* * *

2100 hours Tokyo Standard Time, Project Mew Tokyo Base

"You're certain that's everything?" Ryou asked.

He gave Berry a hard stare, trying to get every detail possible out of the hybrid Mew. She was a poor fighter and a risk to the stability of his team—he should have terminated her a long time ago—but she was useful. The other Mews were independent, or shy, or solitary, or simply chose not to share the details of their private world with him, but Berry put her loyalty to Project Mew before her loyalty to the team. Her affection for him was an asset as well. She would trust him intimately, as the other Mews didn't, and gave him insight into both the interactions within the team and into the thought processes of a Mew, which often seemed as alien as the actual aliens.

"Of course," Berry replied. Her leporine ears were alert, the tips perked up rather than their usual half-drooped state, and her feline tail swished the air. Her wine-red eyes were wide, conveying a very human expression of innocent sincerity and earnestness that seemed out of place knowing what she wanted to do for the Project.

"Alright. Thank you for bringing this to me, Berry. I'll use the information as I see fit. You are dismissed."

"Okay! See you later," the blonde Mew said, planted an enthusiastic if sloppy kiss on her Coordinator's cheek, and left the room beaming.

Ryou turned to Keiichiro, who had been sitting at his computer and listening the whole time. "This is an interesting development, don't you think?"

"Very," Keiichiro replied. "It certainly does explain why the Cyniclons are so desperate to take over Earth and why they're willing to stand and fight a ten-year war when there are countless other planets they could access."

"Which begs the question: who is this Lorem, and if he has access to sensitive information such as this so-called Project Deep Blue, why is he being allowed to roam freely and associate with the enemy? If he were part of our organization, we would probably keep him in the most secure location we had access to to prevent him from being compromised."

"I'm not certain he's an ordinary Cyniclon," Keiichiro said contemplatively. "Berry described him as having blue eyes, but in ten years of interaction the Project has no data recording an alien with a similar eye color. The closest match I can find is violet, which indicates to me that the allele producing the blue-eyed phenotype is both extremely rare and either recessive or incompletely dominant. Taking that into consideration, it's unlikely he's completely natural, and if my hypothesis is correct…"

"You think he's like the Mews."

"Berry reported that he was affiliated with this Project Deep Blue, which, according to his description, is a counter to Project Mew. Considering that phrasing, it's likely genetic manipulation was involved to some degree."

"Hm." Ryou cupped his chin in his hand, his index finger resting on his upper lip while his thumb rested under his jawbone and the other three fingers curled around his chin in his usual pose of 'serious thinking'. "The question becomes this: do we tell the Project about this development or keep it to ourselves?"

"I'll leave that to you, Ryou. As the Coordinator, such decisions are your responsibility."

* * *

2133 hours Tokyo Standard Time, 15 km north of Project Mew Tokyo Base

"Everybody ready?" Calliope asked, slinging her bag across her chest. She'd modified the straps into a harness to avoid hampering her wings or hurting herself while carrying it—not that weight was an issue. She could easily carry equal to her own body weight and still fly for hours.

"Yep," said Lyra, finishing zipping her own bag. Calliope grinned. It was good to know her morals had rubbed off on _someone_, even if that someone was the girl who consistently stole random things from Calliope until the older Mew got smart and locked her door.

"As am I," Lorem added. Hellebore hummed his agreement, and Calliope pushed the window open.

"Alrighty, everyone clear on our plan? We're headed to Australia next, try and convince the Mews down under to work with us, and then we go on a terraformer hunt."

"One problem," Lorem said. "I neglected to inform you, but even if we utilized the Bug in tandem with my computer, its sensory array lacks the power and range to detect the terraformer." 'The Bug' was Calliope's nickname for the small craft Lorem had hijacked during his exit from the Cyniclon mainship, so-called for a superficial resemblance to a Volkswagen Beetle with wings.

"Then what do we do? Lyra and Hellebore reviewed the blueprint-thing and he said we can't get the things we need to build a replica without some hard-core theft that'll definitely get us busted."

"We'll need to steal one of the larger ships, the ones the Earth-resistance teams use as their personal bases of operation. The Bug is just a three-passenger planetary transport with limited capability for low-planetary orbit, while the larger ships are long term and have the systems I would require to do a regional scan for the terraformer's signature."

"So we'll steal a ship," Hellebore said bluntly. "And if we can't find it, we'll steal the stuff—or I'll do it, since none of you can teleport."

Lorem grumbled indignantly, and Calliope burst out laughing at his reaction. If Hellebore's reactions and emotions seemed exaggerated thanks to his human-like appearance and oversized ears, Lorem's far-larger ears were even more comically overblown. That and he was cute when he was grumpy. Calliope just wanted to cuddle him sometimes—when she didn't want to hit him for being either a know-it-all or a doesn't-know-anything. He shot a glare at her, and the blonde sagged against the wall, laughing so hard she shook like a leaf and couldn't get any sound out.

Lorem made an irritated noise somewhere between a whistle and a chirp, and Hellebore chuckled.

"What did he say?" Calliope demanded, gasping to get the air back in her lungs.

"He called you a silly bat-wing weirdo," Hellebore translated.

Calliope smacked the blue-eyed Cyniclon across the back of the head—lightly; of course, she didn't want to give him a concussion. He shot her a dirty look, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Real mature there, Calli," Lyra drawled. "Now, are we gonna sit here and talk all night or get this show on the road?"

"Okay, _Mom_, we're done!" Calliope fired back. Lorem and Hellebore shot each other identically confused looks.

"Mom?" Lorem asked. "Isn't that noun usually used as a term for the female parent, or guardian if the relationship is by association rather than genome?"

"Yeah, but calling Lyra 'Mom' is a way of saying that she's…how do I say it…she's acting like a female parent."

"Ah. Alright, then," Lorem said. Hellebore warbled something at him, and Lorem hum-whistled in reply, each shift in pitch interrupted by a glottal click. Both laughed at that, and Lorem, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, _churred_ quietly while twitching his ears up and down. Hellebore snickered and blew a raspberry. Calliope looked at each other and rolled their eyes in unison. The bat Mew knew they were thinking the same thought:

_Boys._

* * *

10:33 Eastern Standard Time (US/Canada), Project Mew Eastern Seaboard Base

The remaining Eastern Seaboard Mews were running a training exercise.

Unlike their Japanese counterpart, the American bases elected to use virtual-reality augmented scenarios rather than a glorified obstacle course. That being said, the training room was a _mechanized_ glorified obstacle course controlled by the computer that generated the scenario, but virtual-reality helmets added a level of real-world experience the obstacle course alone could never match. Mew Currant, the team's constantly-pissed Leader, was in a good mood for once. It was her favorite virtual mission and her team was running like a well-maintained V8-engine—that is, firing on all cylinders and making a glorious racket while they did so, even though they were short two members.

The scenario was almost something out of the first _Avengers_ movie—the one Calliope had always insisted was the best movie ever—the aliens sending in a mothership and swarms of chimaera to overrun New York City. Currant had never run that scenario before without Calliope and Lyra, and she was feeling the losses pretty hard. Did _that many_ chimaera really come down from overhead all at once?

Fortunately, she'd worked her team to think on their feet and react to changing situations. Amu and Sakura—both of whom used names other than the ones the scientists had given them—took over Calliope and Lyra's positions as 'airborne defense' and 'running sniper' respectively, though both covered their own positions as well. Bree had come out of hiding to take to the air—or, more accurately, the sides of the buildings, where her sharp-edged war fans did serious damage. And Currant stood in the middle of one of the main streets, plugging oncoming chimaera with her laser cannon.

The timer went off, signaling the end of the scenario, and Currant pulled the virtual reality helmet off her head. Her round, furry ears twitched in annoyance, and her upper lip curled. In spite of her team's enthusiasm and determined attack, they'd underperformed. A lot—they'd 'killed' maybe two-thirds their usual count, and nobody managed to disable the mothership.

"Alright folks, listen up," the ringtail-lemur Mew barked. "We're gonna have to step up our game. Calliope and Lyra bailing on us doesn't mean the aliens left, just that we're down two fighters. And even though Calli's calling for peace, we gotta protect _our_ turf from them until she comes through. That means no running off and no stupid shit. Nobody tries to be a hero, got it? Heroes die, and we have to live to keep fighting." Her fierce amber eyes studied her teammates. Three sets of eyes, blue, green and pale yellow, stared back at her—the last pair disconcertingly large as always. "And you know what that means."

Sakura groaned. "Training from hell. Currant, you slave-driving—"

"Is that dissent I hear?" Currant cut her off. "Don't you dare start that shit too. This is like World War One, your freedom of speech guaranteed to you by the Constitution is suspended until the war's over. Got it?"

Sakura saluted, looking grumpy. Bree and Amu saluted as well, and Currant responded and dismissed them to go get cleaned up. That done, she went immediately to Coordinator Merrill to make her report.

The American Mew Projects' funding came entirely from the government, taking up most of the budget assigned to the military, and the bases were run like army camps. The Mews were technically government property, even if they were classified as American citizens and listed in military records as special operatives.

The brunette entered her superior's office and knocked quietly on the doorframe to announce herself. The Coordinator's computer was on, and he was having a conversation with that (in her opinion) hot Japanese Coordinator. The talking went quiet the second she knocked, and Eli looked up at her.

"The team has finished the training session for today. I've got them cleaning up now, and we'll go into weapons' maintenance afterwards."

"Good. Keep them in line, Mew Currant. I don't want anyone else taking off."

"Yes, sir!" The lemur Mew snapped a salute, which her Coordinator replied to, and headed off down the hall to clean up herself.

She'd made her agreement to herself and her team: she would follow the mission so long as she was protecting the people she was supposed to protect, but she wouldn't get in Calliope's way and would help if the rebel Mew asked. She _didn't_, however, like that Calliope was now her equal in rank, knowing how flat-out stupid Calliope could be when her brain shut off and her body took over. Hopefully the alien, who had actually been caught in Bree's analysis of Calliope's hack-attack, was smart enough to keep her in line.

One could only hope…


End file.
